NEW YORK AP — Apple is in.

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The move isn't likely to impact the stock index much, and will have no effect on the fortunes of the two companies. But market experts say it does have symbolic importance, sort of like getting an Oscar at the Academy Awards — or at least a nomination. The change cements Apple as "the gold standard of technology," says Daniel Ives, a financial analyst at FBR Research.

The reshuffling of the year-old Dow, a barometer of market fortune and folly once dominated by railroads, also reflects a changed business world. Apple is the world's most valuable company.

Apple won't get top billing in the Dow, though. Thanks to a quirk in the way the index is calculated, that honor will go to a company a little over a tenth as valuable: The Dow weights companies by how much it costs to buy a single share, not all of them. For all the symbolic importance, the trigger for the move is less colorful.

After its four-to-one split, Visa will wind up with a lower price. Adding Apple will help balance out this reduction. The nation's second-largest wireless carrier is facing pressure from smaller rivals T-Mobile and Sprint in a competitive environment in which most Americans already have a cellphone.

Its stock has risen just 3. That compares with a Apple, meanwhile, has jumped 67 percent.

Apple set to join Dow Jones replacing AT&T - BBC News

The Dallas-based company is also trying to wean customers off equipment subsidies and shift them toward installment plans in which they ultimately pay full price for a phone. But its revenue rose 4 percent as it added 1. Created in , the Dow is one of the oldest gauges of stocks.

Grover Cleveland was U. Companies like the Pacific Mail Steamship were counted among its ranks. That gives Apple more influence on daily moves in the index than any other stock. It accounts for nearly 4 percent of the index.

They tend to use that index, not the Dow, to judge the performance of their own portfolios.

Apple Added To Dow Jones Industrial Average - WSJ

Still, the Dow can't be dismissed as a relic. It continues to be much cited and isn't seen as wildly distorted. In the past 12 months, for instance, the Dow has risen 8.

The last big Dow shake-up came in September , when Goldman Sachs, Nike and Visa knocked out Alcoa, Bank of America and Hewlett-Packard.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Nov. Apple will start trading as part of the stock Dow at the opening of trading the next day. BERNARD CONDON and MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writers.