Alphabet GOOGL-Q shares climbed on Monday as the Google parent made its debut in the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing Verizon Communications VZ-N, and immediately ranking among its most influential members.
Its shares rose 3.7 per cent to US$350.24, offering one of the biggest boosts to the 30-member Dow.
The company replaced Verizon on the index, S&P Dow Jones Indices said in an announcement on June 23.
As a higher-priced stock, Alphabet carries more weight in the price-weighted index than Verizon did, which was one of its least influential members, and broadens the Dow’s exposure to digital advertising, cloud computing and AI.
The addition lifts to five the number of “Magnificent Seven” members in the Dow, alongside Nvidia NVDA-Q, Amazon AMZN-Q, Apple AAPL-Q and Microsoft MSFT-Q.
The previous reshuffle in November, 2024, brought in Nvidia and Sherwin-Williams in place of Intel and Dow Inc.
Index funds tracking the Dow must buy Alphabet to mirror the change, but the demand is likely to be modest: the Dow had about US$115-billion in assets indexed and benchmarked to it as of Dec. 31, 2024, against roughly US$20-trillion for the S&P 500, where Alphabet is already a member, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Alphabet shares are up roughly 11 per cent this year, as of last close, among the best performers in the Magnificent Seven group of tech mega-caps.
The 130-year-old Dow remains one of the most widely cited gauges of U.S. market sentiment.
Verizon shares fell 7.8 per cent to US$42.03 in a broad retreat in telecom stocks after Comcast said it would split into two publicly traded companies through a spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky.