Apple's stock took a steep plunge last week, falling nearly 7 percent in two days. Many, like The New York Times, partially attributed the drop to the crisis unfolding in Japan, and worries about Apple's ability to keep up with increasing demands for products like the iPad 2. Like most tech companies, Apple relies on components made in Japan.

As illustrated by the NASDAQ line in the chart above, the market at large dipped in the aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami. But Apple's decline was twice as large as the drop in other technology shares, according to the Times. Apple may have been singled out due to issues around meeting demand for products like the iPad and iPhone.

Determining causality in the market is notoriously difficult, and largely speculative, and Apple's ever-rising stock has recovered much of its lost ground. But this seems to be a good example of how the stock of even super-hyped companies, like Apple as it releases the iPad 2, can get buffeted by world events.

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Eli Rosenberg