S&P Dow Jones Indices announced after the bell on Tuesday (20) that global e-commerce giant Amazon will join the Dow Jones Industrial Average constituents, replacing U.S. drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance, effective next Monday (26).
Amazon will join the Dow Jones Industrial Average, replacing BofA. This is another change in the Dow Jones constituents following the addition of Salesforce, Amgen and Honeywell three years ago.
In a combination of foreign news outlets, the committee that compiles the Dow Jones indexes said the change reflects the growing nature of the U.S. economy and will add the consumer retailing business as well as other areas of Dow Jones’ business, and that Walmart’s decision to split its stock also prompted the adjustment.
Walmart will remain a Dow component. Shares of Amazon rose 1.6% after hours following the news, while WOBU fell more than 3%.
At the same time, the company also announced it was dropping JetBlue and letting UBER join the Dow Jones Transportation Average.
Wall Street had predicted several times before that BofA was about to be dropped from the index. BofA has had a significant impact on the index, with the stock down about 65% since its June 2018 addition. BofA was up 1.50 percent on Tuesday before it sank more than 3 percent in the black after hours.
Amazon is more than just a retail giant these days, with the group’s footprint spanning the cloud, logistics, and film and television.
