The PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGS: QQQ) will welcome hotel operator Marriott International (NasdaqGS: MAR) to its lineup in the coming weeks.
In a statement released Monday evening, NASDAQ OMX confirmed Marriot “will become a component of the NASDAQ-100 Index (Nasdaq: NDX) and the NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index (Nasdaq: NDXE) prior to market open on Monday, November 18, 2013.”
Randgold Resources (NasdaqGM: GOLD) is getting the boot out of the NASDAQ-100. That stock is the fourth-largest holding in the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEArca: GDX).
Marriott’s addition to the NASDAQ-100 makes eligible to join QQQ, so-called NASDAQ-100 tracking ETF. The stock’s inclusion in the NASDAQ-100 Equal Weight Index means it could also find a home in the Direxion NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares (NYSEArca: QQQE) and the First Trust NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Fund (NasdaqGM: QQEW). [Equal-Weight Tech ETFs if You’re Shy About Apple]
Based on Monday’s close, Marriott, of which former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a board member, has a market cap of almost $14 billion.