S&P 500 Index Providers Trigger Tech Sector Shake-Up

Changes in the S&P 500 on Friday will see Target, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree move from consumer discretionary to consumer staples, while Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal will be moved from technology to financials. These changes highlight the power of index providers, whose decisions on stock classification can have a significant impact on the market. With $6 trillion directly indexed to the S&P 500 alone, and trillions more indirectly indexed, the people who manage what goes in and out of these indexes have become very influential.