A clearing house is an intermediary between buyers and sellers of financial instruments. Further, it is an agency or separate corporation of a futures exchange responsible for settling trading accounts, clearing trades, collecting and maintaining margin monies, regulating delivery, and reporting trading data.
All the world's 10 most valuable companies, including Alphabet, Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT), are based in the U.S., according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Capital IQ based on the S&P Global 1200 index. Alphabet's rise to No. 1 with a market value Tuesday of $554.8 billion is a historic moment.
Following Facebook's better-than-expected results Wednesday, the No. 1 social media company is now worth $306.4 billion. That not only puts Facebook's market value ahead of General Electric at $299.6 billion - it makes Facebook the seventh most valuable company in the Standard & Poor's 500.