Stock Market Today, June 29: Verizon Drops After Dow Removal and BT Group Joint Venture Drives Heavy Selling
Today, June 29, 2026, index fund rebalancing and new joint venture put fresh pressure on Verizon shares.
Overview
Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ), a wireless and broadband telecom services provider, closed at $44.08, down 5.30%. Verizon fell after the stock was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average last week, alongside the company’s announcement of a new joint venture with BT Group to merge their international operations. Trading volume reached 47.9M shares, coming in about 93% above its three-month average of 24.9M shares.
The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) rose 1.16% to 7,439, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) gained 2.07% to 25,820. Among integrated telecommunications services peers, AT&T (NYSE:T) fell 4.09% to $21.79 and T-Mobile U.S. (NASDAQ:TMUS) declined 4.77% to $173.97 as telecom shares absorbed competition and index-rebalancing headlines.
Details
With Alphabet replacing Verizon in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, effective today, it is entirely possible that the bulk of today’s selling stemmed from indexes rebalancing their portfolios. However, Verizon also announced a joint venture with BT Group that would combine their international operations. Though management believes the deal will be EBITDA accretive, there will be $700 million to $800 million in short-term restructuring costs, which have also seemed to spook the market.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.