Freakout Friday: Broadcom's Jump Into S&P Likely to Roil Markets

The second quarter has been tough, and doubtless many investors are looking forward to laying it to rest. All the big indices, and most portfolios, are lower, and the urge to get a little rest and begin anew is strong. Plenty of people on Wall Street will be taking Monday off, stretching the weekend into a four-day affair. Even now, thoughts of Fourth of July barbecues are wafting over trading desks, drawing off attention.

But before the weekend comes, traders are going to have to get through Friday. And Friday? It's shaping up to be no fun at all.

That there will be a lot of churning Friday shouldn't come as any surprise. The final trading day of the second quarter is always a little weird: Not only do you have the typical window-dressing (the tidying up of portfolios that comes at quarter end), but also the annual rebalancing of the Russell 2000 index. Small-cap index managers will be scurrying to clear the Russell deletions from their portfolios, and to buy the additions. ...