Palantir Technologies, MicroStrategy and Axon Enterprise, three of the hottest stocks in 2024, will join the Nasdaq 100 index before the open on Dec. 23, Nasdaq Inc. said late Friday.
Palantir edged lower after a whipsaw morning, with its Nasdaq 100 entrance largely expected. MicroStrategy erased a sharp early gain while Axon edged higher.
On the way out? Moderna, Super Micro Computer and Illumina. They're among the smallest Nasdaq 100 members. Moderna stock has plunged in 2024, while Super Micro has dived from its March peak amid major accounting woes. Illumina is up slightly in 2024, but has been trending lower since early 2021.
Moderna and Illumina inched higher. SMCI stock fell 8.3%, perhaps in part on a Bloomberg report that it's hired Evercore to help raise capital.
The Nasdaq 100 includes the 100 largest non-financial stocks. It's dominated by the Magnificent Seven: Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms and Tesla.
New Nasdaq 100 Members
Palantir's entry into the Nasdaq 100 had been expected after the AI data analytics play switched its listing to the Nasdaq composite from the New York Stock Exchange in November. At $173 billion as of Dec. 13, its market cap is higher than many current Nasdaq 100 members. PLTR stock has spiked 343% in 2024, the S&P 500's top performer.
PLTR tilted down 0.4% to 75.62 after initially popping to 77.82 and then falling to 71.16 before paring losses.
MicroStrategy is a money-losing software company that is largely a leveraged bitcoin play. It's sold stock and debt to buy up more and more of the cryptocurrency, including $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin last week. Its market cap is at $82.8 billion, thanks to a 547% run this year.
Bitcoin jumped to a new record high, another tailwind for MSTR stock. MicroStrategy disclosed that it bought 15,350 bitcoin last week from the proceeds of a $1.5 billion stock sale.
MicroStrategy lost 17 cents to 408.50 after spiking to 437.61 intraday.
Axon Enterprise, maker of Taser weapons, Axon body cameras and digital storage for law enforcement, has soared almost 150% in 2024. Axon stock climbed 0.7% to 649.30 after tumbling to 603.33 in the morning.
Mutual funds and ETFs that track the Nasdaq 100 will need to buy or sell stocks that join or exit the index. But the money involved is far less than that tracking the S&P 500 index.
Axon stock is on IBD Leaderboard. Palantir stock and Axon Enterprise are on the IBD 50.
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