Big Tech Sector Shake-Up Put These Stocks And ETFs In Focus

The biggest change in Wall Street’s broad sectors since 1999 is scheduled for today, with a reshuffle of the technology and media sectors. Last year, S&P Dow Jones and MSCI had announced major changes in the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) that broadened the old telecommunication sector and renamed it to communication services sector, effective Sep 24, 2018.

The shift will reclassify some of the hot and soaring high-growth tech and media stocks, with telecom stocks into a newly-minted communication services sector. This is the first restructured sector on the S&P 500 since real estate was removed from the financial sector to become the 11th sector two years ago.

Inside the Shake-Up

The telecommunications sector, known for defensive bets due to the inclusion of highest-dividend yield stocks, has now become riskier and cyclical with a new look. This is especially true as the newly minted sector has grown from three to more than 20 companies, adding some key names from the technology and the consumer discretionary sectors.

Three of the FANG stocks — Facebook (FB), Netflix (NFLX) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) — have moved to the new communication service sector. These stocks combined have $1.8 trillion in market capitalization. Other technology names — Twitter (TWTR), PayPal Holdings (PYPL), Activision Blizzard (ATVI) and Electronic Arts (EA) — also moved to the new sector from technology.

Media stocks such as Walt Disney (DIS), Comcast (CMCSA), CBS (CBS) and News Corp. (NWSA) have also left the consumer discretionary space to join the new one. Meanwhile, Amazon (AMZN) remains in the consumer discretionary space, with increased weightings to 25%.

Components of the communication services sector are as follows:

*Source: S&P/Dow Jones Indices

With the overhaul of the components, tech stocks now comprise half of the communication services sector, while consumer stocks led by Netflix make up another 28%. Telecom stocks will represent less than 20% share in the sector.