Dow inclusion is not a reason to buy Alphabet. But these other reasons may be

Another megacap tech stock has been tapped to join the Dow Jones Industrial Average , as the symbolic stock gauge continues to evolve to reflect the driving forces of the new economy. Google-parent Alphabet will become one of the Dow-30 stocks before the open on Monday, replacing Verizon . Dow inclusion is not a reason to buy a stock because the money benchmarked to the broader market is tied to the S & P 500 or the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (Alphabet already belongs to those indexes). That means there won't be much forced fund buying tied to joining the Dow. But, putting a fifth megacap in the Dow to join Apple , Amazon , Nvidia , and Microsoft does serve as a zeitgeist moment for the market, as much of the Wall Street coverage outside financial media focuses on the Dow. There is also a history of measuring some of the biggest downturns in terms of Dow moves. The Alphabet nod comes four years after the company's 20-to-1 stock split, which made the share price more palatable for inclusion in the price-weighted Dow. (The S & P 500 is market-cap weighted.) It is notable that Alphabet, which trades at $350 per share, is replacing Verizon, which trades around $46. That means that the ups and downs of Alphabet, which by nature of its much higher share price and higher volatility, will mean more to the overall average. Shares of Alphabet are up nearly 12% year to date, beating the S & P 500's nearly 8% advance. Zooming out, the stock has more than doubled over the past 12 months. …