S&P 500 to Include E*Trade

Standard & Poor's has announced that E*Trade Financial Corp., a New York-based provider of online discount brokerage services and retail mortgage lending, will replace FleetBoston Financial Corp. in the S&P 500 Index as of the close of trading on March 31.S&P said FleetBoston is being replaced in the index because it is being acquired by Banc of America Corp., which is also a constituent of the S&P 500. Concurrently with the move, E*Trade will be deleted from the S&P MidCap 400 Index and replaced by Ryland Group Inc., a homebuilder and provider of mortgage-related financial services based in Calabasas, Calif. Ryland, in turn, will be deleted from the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and replaced by Sterling Financial Corp., Spokane, Wash., which will be added to that index's Thrifts & Mortgage Finance Sub-Industry Index, S&P said. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.