It was expected for months, now it’s real. Index overseers have changed their opinion of which industries some of the stock market’s shiniest stars belong to. Facebook and Google’s parent Alphabet will leave the biggest industry classification, information technology, and join communications, a category set to replace telecom by merging existing phone companies with some Internet and media stocks. S&P Global and MSCI disclosed the moves in a statement. The new group will also include Netflix, TripAdvisor, Comcast Corp. and Naspers. In another winnowing of tech, Alibaba Group and eBay will be reclassified as consumer discretionary. The moves were previewed when index providers announced in November one of their biggest overhauls in years. Formally an attempt by S&P and MSCI to match stock-market sectors to the evolving economy, the plan’s biggest implications are for exchange-traded funds, which may be forced to buy and sell shares to mimic the changes. According to a December estima...
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