GOOG hit a fresh all time high yesterday, powering the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 and related tracking ETF QQQ (PowerShares QQQ Trust, Expense Ratio 0.20%) higher, where the stock carries a >7% weighting and is the number three weighted component in the index.
To put things in perspective, GOOG is also now the sixth largest company in the S&P 500 Index based on market capitalization, and with the stock on this momentous rise (traded as high as $1147.32 this morning where the stock was in the $800 range just last October) over the past several months, it may continue to climb in terms of its relative market capitalization.
Recall that GOOG only went public in August of 2004, and names that it is competing with in terms of market cap size are unquestionably more established XOM, AAPL, MSFT, JNJ, and GE (to name the top five
weightings in the S&P 500 Index).
As GOOG continues to rise we look at two things, its expected quarterly earnings release on 1/30/14 as well as ETFs where the stock is well represented in terms of its weighting as they will certainly be more
active in the near term than usual given the stock specific movement.
FDN (First Trust DJ Internet Index, Expense Ratio 0.60%) stands out in particular, as GOOG carries a 9.94% weighting and is the largest holding in the fund (the next closest weighting is AMZN at 7.09%). IYW (iShares U.S. Technology, Expense Ratio 0.48%) also has decent exposure to GOOG, at 9.59%, as do the following ETFs, several of which are not household names (PNQI (PowerShares Nasdaq Internet Portfolio, Expense Ratio 0.60%, 8.05% weighting), (XLK (SPDR Technology Select, Expense Ratio 0.18%, 7.91% weighting), (IGM (iShares North American Technology, Expense Ratio 0.48%, 7.84% weighting), and IXN (iShares Global Technology, Expense Ratio 0.48%, 7.16% weighting).