David Blitzer Change Quotations

It's just a lack of consistency. Companies change the definition quarter to quarter, whichever looks best - that's not a reasonable way to do business.

This is a year of unusually low S&P index turnover due to the low number of mergers and acquisitions in the large-cap sector. So we are making the change at a time when the impact on index investors will be minimized.

A change of 7% or 8% in estimated earnings for the S&P 500 is significant, especially if investors are not fully aware of what caused the change.

This change makes the S&P 500 a better reflection of the large cap segment of the U.S. equities market. Index funds and exchange-traded funds can expect lower operating and transaction expenses and less tracking error.