The news at a glance

Stocks: The Dow index recasts its lineup

The Dow Jones industrial average is getting a makeover, said William Alden in NYTimes.com. The 30-firm stock index announced that it will drop Alcoa, Bank of America, and Hewlett-Packard from its roster next week, and replace them with Goldman Sachs, Visa, and Nike. S&P Dow Jones Indices said the decision was prompted by the three outgoing companies’ “sagging stock prices and the index committee’s desire to diversify” its mix of companies. “They’ve dropped the smaller weights out of the index and replaced them with what they deem to be better candidates representing the way the economy is moving,” said UBS analyst Trista Rose.

It’s the influential index’s “biggest reshuffling since April 2004,” said Nick Taborekin Bloomberg.com. The Dow’s proportions are determined by the dollar value of its constituent stocks, and the addition of the three high-price stocks will reduce the relative weight of other stocks in the index, significantly boosting the share of financial firms. Visa and Goldman “will have about seven times the weighting” of the constituents they replace, and will become the second- and third-most important stocks in the index. The three new members each saw their stock prices rise on the news, while Hewlett-Packard and Alcoa shares slid.

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Tech: New iPhone underwhelms investors

Apple unveiled two new iPhones this week, but investors and analysts were not impressed, said Hibah Yousuf in CNN.com. The company said it would start selling the new flagship iPhone 5S this month, alongside a less-expensive, plastic version called the iPhone 5C. “But there were no surprises in the iPhone announcements,” which had long been rumored, “and analysts think the price differential between the two new products may not be enough.” The company’s shares slid more than 7 percent after the announcement, erasing “nearly $35 billion in Apple’s market value.”

Bonds: Verizon to sell $49 billion in bonds

Verizon Communications has announced the largest corporate bond sale in history, said Mike Cherney, Dana Cimilluca, and Liz Rappaport in The Wall Street Journal. The telecom giant will sell up to $49 billion worth of bonds to help pay Vodafone an agreed $130 billion to regain full control of its mobile subsidiary, Verizon Wireless. The sale “is expected to dwarf the previous biggest corporate-bond sale, a $17 billion offering by Apple.” It will also make Verizon “the largest non-financial bond issuer,” with nearly $100 billion of outstanding debt.

Buyouts: Icahn drops Dell bid

Investor Carl Icahn is giving up on his takeover bid for Dell, said Andrea Chang in the Los Angeles Times. Icahn’s decision follows “months of bitter fighting over the future” of Dell, which CEO and founder Michael Dell has been trying to take private. The news clears the way for Michael Dell’s buyout offer—valued at $13.75 per share in cash, or $24.6 billion—which still requires shareholder approval. The company’s founder “is hoping the going-private move will help the struggling computer-maker reinvent itself away from the glare and pressures of Wall Street.”

Loans: Chase bails on student loans

JPMorgan Chase is dropping out of the student loan business, said David Henry in Reuters.com. In a memo to employees, the bank said it will stop accepting applications for private student loans on Oct. 12. The move was prompted largely by increased competition from federal government programs and regulator scrutiny that has limited the bank’s market. “We just don’t see this as a market that we can significantly grow,” said Chase executive Thasunda Brown Duckett.