Surprise! Apple's Plunge Has Been Great for Stocks

In at least a roundabout way, Apple's precipitous and rapid fall has been the stock market's gain.

Though few if any stocks on the Standard & Poor's 500 get attention comparable to the technology behemoth, its 44 percent plunge off its Sept. 19, 2012 historic high has coincided with an 8 percent surge on on the broad market index.

So what happened to that $291 billion in market capitalization that Apple lost?

A bevy of other stocks have been there to happily pick up the slack.