Google’s shares reached an all-time high, valuing the company at nearly $175bn, just a few billion short of leader Wal-Mart, notes Tech Trader Daily. This, despite the small disparity in revenue – $11.5bn compared with Wal-Mart’s $377.8bn.

What is driving the climb, the site speculates, is a couple of investment comments – one showing financial services firms cutting back advertising but leaving search advertising intact, the other suggesting Google has a 9 to 24 month lead over competitors in several important technology areas.