Facebook, Snap, and Twitter have a new home

MARKETS

• U.S. markets: The Dow and the S&P 500 finished strong last week, each notching record highs. Looks like Wall Street's a little less concerned about that trade war.
• Trade: Speaking of which, today's the day a new round of tariffs from both the U.S. and China go into effect. China called off plans for a new round of trade talks over the weekend.

STOCKS

Those Tech Investments Won’t Be Tech Investments for Long

When the opening bell rings this morning, big tech players will move to a new home on the S&P 500 in the most significant sector reshuffling to hit Wall Street since 1999. We hope they'll get their securities deposits back.

What's happening: S&P Dow Jones is overhauling its Global Industry Classification Standard, or GICS.

Why it's happening: "(Reclassification) is a step towards acknowledging the convergence of telecommunications, media, and select internet companies and the overlapping services rendered by these companies, within the GICS Structure," S&P said when it first announced the changes earlier this year.

The details

Facebook will transition to a revamped "Communications Services" sector from the old "Information Technology" sector. Alphabet, Twitter, PayPal, and Snap have also secured U-Hauls for the move. Apple's staying behind in info tech.

Netflix, Disney, Viacom, and Fox will also join the Communications Services squad, leaving Amazon behind in their old Consumer Discretionary group.

The broader context

Dust off your Sartre, 'cause we're getting existential: Company identity has become a major question for tech execs. Remember Zuck's testimony on Capitol Hill when pressed on what, exactly, Facebook is?

• After all, companies like Facebook, Twitter, Snap, etc. rely more and more on ad revenue these days than they do tech breakthroughs.

Zoom out: Tech has grown to be ~26% of the S&P 500, but the reshuffling will reduce that weighting to ~15%.

• FYI, per the old standards, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon alone had an S&P market weighting of 15.6%...greater than both the health care and financials sectors.

What it means
"It is very important for investors to understand how the reclassification will affect their portfolios, since the ETFs that they currently hold may no longer suit their investment objectives," Zacks Investment Research's Neena Mishra told CNBC.

• Translation: The $23 billion Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund is about to undergo some serious changes today.

MEDIA

Comcast Outbids Fox to Win Sky in Weekend Showdown

Comcast (+0.24%) has (finally) put an end to a monthslong bidding process and taken the coveted prize—European broadcaster Sky—from 21st Century Fox (-0.70%).

Comcast outbid Fox by a healthy $3.6 billion in a rare U.K. Takeover Panel-run settlement auction Saturday. In the end, Comcast offered $22.59 per share (about $38.8 billion total) for Sky, while Fox offered a little under $20 per share.

• Why everyone wanted Sky: For starters, it sells TV, phone, and internet services to ~23 million European households (a key int'l market). Plus, it DIYs its own news, entertainment, and sports programming. Heard of the Premier League?

What happens next

Comcast will have to earn approval from more than 50% of Sky's shareholders to seal the deal.

• The ~10% premium Comcast paid over Fox's final offer was an effort to win over those Sky shareholders...the prospects look good.
• Starting today, Comcast will begin buying Sky shares in the market with a goal to amass more than 50% of the stock before Oct. 11.

Interesting potential outcome: Analysts have suggested Comcast might trade its 30% stake in Hulu to Disney in return for the 39% stake in Sky that Disney/Fox already holds.

ELECTION

Companies Rock the Vote

That TV spot from Levi's make you want to run through a brick wall to vote this November?

Well, that's the idea of "Time to Vote," a nonpartisan initiative made up of ~150 companies that have banded together to boost voter turnout. Because not everyone can afford to ditch work for a couple hours on a random Tuesday...

Here's just a short list of what companies are doing to make voting easier:

• Lyft is offering 50% off promo codes to help get people to polling locations. It's also offering free rides in underserved communities.
• Patagonia is basically shutting down its entire operations for Election Day.
• Walmart made this nifty website with a bunch of election resources.

Bottom line: Per a Pew study, 35% of registered voters did not vote in the 2014 midterms because of work or school conflicts.

PAYMENTS

Venmo Gets a New Leader for a New Season

Venmo parent PayPal (+0.02%) just announced a new exec to usher in a new season. Money making season, that is.

Amit Jhawar will serve as new general manager of Venmo, its third GM since the end of 2016.

What's Venmo worth? Other than establishing itself as its own verb and making it more convenient than ever to "forget" your wallet at home, Venmo notched more than $14 billion in payment volume in Q2 alone.

But since Venmo doesn't charge most users to transfer money, it's been a drain on PayPal. Part of Jhawar's new job will be to change that.

• Jhawar has a good starting position. Venmo users can use the app to pay Uber, GrubHub, and ~2 million other online retailers. And PayPal now issues physical debit cards for Venmo users to spend money offline, too.

The support's there. Hedge fund Third Point took an $800 million stake in PayPal earlier this year, and told investors it sees Venmo adding $1 billion in annual revenue to PayPal's top line within the next three years.

CALENDAR

What's on Tap

We've been waiting for this for almost two months. "Fed Week" is officially here.

Monday: 70th anniversary of Honda's founding

Tuesday: Fed meeting begins; Salesforce's Dreamforce begins; National Voter Registration Day; earnings (Nike)

Wednesday: Jerome Powell's press conference; Donald Trump chairs the UN Security Council; new home sales; earnings (Bed Bath & Beyond)

Thursday: GDP; jobless claims; World Tourism Day; earnings (Rite Aid, Accenture)

Friday: Consumer sentiment; New York Film Festival opens; earnings (BlackBerry)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Wendy’s Twitter Doesn’t Care About Your Feelings

The scene: It's Saturday. Coached by Scott Frost, Nebraska's football team is getting thrashed by the University of Michigan. They're on their way to an 0-3 start.

Act 1: The banter

Act 2: The burn

Act 3: The woman later deleted her Twitter account.

Zoom out: Whatever you think of Wendy's (-1.77%) aggressive attitude, it's just one of many companies utilizing social media (and Twitter specifically) to get, uh, personal with the public.

Question for you: Do you know of any other brands that show a lot of "personality" with their social media accounts? Let us know here and we'll share a few responses with the community tomorrow.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Farfetch, a London-based luxury e-commerce platform, surged as much as 53% in its first day on the NYSE Friday.
• Federal prosecutors are probing whether big drugmakers (including Sanofi, Gilead, and Biogen) broke the law by providing some free services, per the WSJ.
• Twitter (-4.52%) has patched a bug that could have shared users' private info with outside developers.
• A Lime scooter rider was killed in a collision in Washington, D.C., marking the second time this month someone has died while riding a Lime.
• Rebecca Minkoff, a high-end designer, said she's willing to "take a hit" and will not pass tariff-related price hikes onto customers.
• Tiger Woods (+1 bajillion%) won the Tour Championship, his first victory in five years.

BREAKROOM

Brain Teaser
If...

4872+1209=48

6432+1616=42

5084+2512=27

Then: 9975+9915=?

(Answer located at bottom of newsletter)

Breakroom Answers