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Tesla to join S&P 500 as its biggest new member ever

16 November 2020
Dan Ackermann

Tesla will join the S&P 500, the index's committee said on Monday.

Why it matters: After years of ineligibility, one of the most valuable U.S. companies by market cap (and the most valuable automaker in the world) is joining the main benchmark of the stock market as its biggest new member ever.

  • The move opens Tesla up to a massive investor base: roughly $11 trillion worth of investment funds that track the index.
  • Tesla would be the 10th biggest S&P 500 component, ahead of Johnson & Johnson.

Catch up quick: The company met the final requirement for eligibility — four consecutive quarters of profitability — when it reported its Q2 results in July. But the company was passed over when S&P Dow Jones Indices switched up the index's components in September.

  • Wall Street analysts speculated that the reason was because of Tesla's dependency on the sale of regulatory credits to other automakers — without which, it wouldn't be profitable on a quarterly basis.
  • Shares of Tesla, which ran up earlier this year on the expectation it would be added to the index, rose roughly 9% in after-hours trading.

Details: The move is effective on Dec. 21.

  • Because Tesla is such a massive addition to the index, the committee is still trying to figure out whether the company should be added all at once or in two separate tranches.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.