S&P Highlights ETFs Vulnerable To Steve Jobs' Departure

With news of Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO of Apple AAPL, ETF investors might want to take a look at the funds they currently hold to make sure they're comfortable with the exposure those investments offer to the tech juggernaut. That's the advice of Standard & Poor's Equity Research, who in a note published today, advised investors to examine their ETF holdings for what might be surprisingly excessive Apple exposure. Think about it: That's sound advice as Apple is one of the largest companies in the world by market value, making it a primary holding in dozens of index funds, and that's a reality investors must deal with whether they are bullish on Apple or not. “The challenge for investors, we think, is understanding whether certain mutual funds or ETFs they own have exposure to Apple shares, and if they do, whether there is too much overlap in their total asset allocation,” S&P analyst Todd Rosenbluth said in the note. S&P notes that 16% of the U.S.-focused equity ETFs in its coverage universe count Apple among their top-10 holdings. That group includes the SPDR S&P 500 Trust SPY, the iShares S&P 500 Index Fund IVV and the SPDR Select Sector Technology SPDR XLK, all of which S&P has “overweight” ratings on. SPY and IVV have weights of 3% to Apple while XLK, as Benzinga noted earlier today, is vulnerable to any downturn in Apple shares as that ETF has a weight of nearly 15% to Apple. Other ETFs with significant Apple exposure include the PowerShares QQQ QQQ with almost 15% to the iPad maker. The iShares Dow Jones US Technology Index Fund IYW devotes almost 17% of its weight to Apple. The Vanguard Information Technology ETF VGT features 14% exposure to Apple. Those ETFs were not discussed in the S&P note.