Microsoft's one-day stock plunge: enough to buy all of Costco

The Seattle Times reports:

Microsoft's stock took its biggest one-day fall in more than five years Friday, shaving about $32 billion off the company's market value.

That's enough to buy Starbucks, with plenty left over to treat everyone in China to a tall cafe Americano. Or maybe buy Costco and Getty Images and get back about $2 billion in pocket change.

It's almost as much as the United States spends every three months in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The endowment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charity, is a few billion less.

Microsoft's stock closed at $24.15, down $3.10 a share, or 11.4 percent, after the Redmond software company indicated plans Thursday to invest more in its businesses — including a battle for the Internet with Google and Yahoo! — at the expense of higher short-term profits.

Look at this monthly chart.