Besides Apple, many other U.S. companies also were affected by the newly passed tax reform bill.

Banking giant Goldman Sachs said it's going to pay a one-time tax of 4.4 billion dollars due to reforms concerning the repatriation of foreign earnings. The tax prompted the investment bank to report a fourth-quarter loss of 2.1 billion dollars. That was the first quarterly loss for the company in seven years. The payment also weighed on Goldman Sachs' annual earnings, which fell 48 percent to $3.7 billion. Meanwhile, Bank of America's quarterly profit was nearly chopped in half, also because of tax-related charges. The company has to pay 2.9 billion dollars in taxes. That lowered the bank's fourth quarter profit to 2.4 billion dollars, or 20 cents a share, down from 39 cents a share from the same period a year ago.