FYI: Big Technology better make room for Big Tobacco.
Such is the battle for S&P 500 leadership this year, where mega-cap technology has recently unseated the reflationary trade as the main driver behind the index’s 5.6 percent advance. But lost in the rotation is the stalwart of 2017, a company that sits up there with gains from Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., and peddles in e-cigarettes over e-commerce.
Philip Morris International Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company, emerged as the first quarter’s unsung hero. Its 3.3 percent contribution to S&P 500 gains makes it the fourth most important U.S. stock, right after shares that look more familiar to the leader board: Apple Inc., Amazon and Facebook.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-03/cigarettes-crash-tech-giants-foothold-on-u-s-stock-domination
