TESLA APPEARS POISED TO ELECTRIFY S&P 500

Wall Street’s most controversial stock may be about to go mainstream. Tesla Inc. appears on the verge of joining the S&P 500, a major accomplishment for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk that would unleash a flood of new demand for the electric car maker’s shares, which have already surged 500% over the past year.

Higher-than-expected second-quarter vehicle deliveries, announced last week, have analysts increasingly confident the company will show a profit in its quarterly report on July 22. That would mark Tesla’s first cumulative four-quarter profit, a key hurdle to be added to the S&P 500.

With a market capitalization of about $250 billion, Tesla would be among the most valuable companies ever added to the S&P 500, larger than 95% of the index’s existing components. It would have a major impact on investment funds that track the index, Noel Randewich and Chuck Mikolajczak reported for Reuters early on July 10, 2020.

While analysts and investors have recently become more confident of Tesla’s addition, an S&P Dow Jones spokeswoman declined to comment about specific changes to the index.