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Amazon becomes most valuable US company for first time

But its market cap isn't at the $1 trillion level for now.

Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
Dara Kerr
Shopping at the Amazon Go store in San Francisco

Amazon ended Monday with a market cap of $797 billion.

James Martin/CNET

Amazon is now king of Wall Street. 

It became the highest valued US public company by market capitalization on Monday with a valuation of $797 billion. This is the first time the e-commerce company has claimed this title.

Apple earlier had been in top place with a market cap reaching more than $1.1 trillion in October, but over the past few months its shares stumbled over concerns of slowing iPhone sales. Apple closed at about $702 billion on Monday. 

Microsoft had led for the past few weeks with a valuation upward of $785 billion. But Amazon was able to surpass it Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal, in part because of optimism over new trade talks between Washington and Beijing.

Shares for Amazon dropped by 25 percent last quarter, but they've rebounded in recent weeks. Its shares are now up 8.5 percent. The retailer hit a $1 trillion valuation once in September, but fell below the mark after the markets closed.

While Amazon is known for its e-commerce site, it's been able to gain an edge with its cloud storage business and products like the Echo smart home speaker.

Amazon declined to comment for this story.