I love the smell of index rebalancing in the morning.

The iconic S&P 500 announced a change to its components, replacing four of its laggards with four ascending stocks.

Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), F5 Networks (Nasdaq: FFIV), Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), and Newfield Exploration (NYSE: NFX) are the four additions. The cable provider, networking specialist, movie-delivery company, and oil explorer don't have a lot in common, but that's also the point behind the diversified index.

You can probably expect the stocks to post healthy gains in the coming days, as funds tracking the S&P 500 load up on these four names.

Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

  • E-Commerce China Dangdang (Nasdaq: DANG), China's largest online bookseller, went public on Wednesday. The shares priced at $16 and nearly doubled on the day. The company's dangdang.com website stocks 590,000 book titles. I wonder if any of them cover the right way to celebrate a hot IPO.
  • Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) may be giving away as many as 60,000 laptops, as the first portable systems powered by its Google Chrome operating system. Chrome wasn't built in a day, but amassing an army of 60,000 grateful users can't hurt.
  • Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) finally sealed the deal with Howard Stern, renewing his contract for another five years. It was an easy decision, but the two sides cut negotiations close to the finish line.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

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