Why CoreCivic Stock Popped 10% This Morning

Why CoreCivic Stock Popped 10% This Morning

Shares of CoreCivic (NYSE: CXW), a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns jail and halfway-house properties tied to the criminal justice system, jumped more than 10% in early trading Wednesday and remained up 7.3% at 11:15 a.m. EDT today. This morning, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that tiny CoreCivic will replace even tinier offshore driller Valaris (NYSE: VAL) on the S&P SmallCap 600. CoreCivic's addition to the SmallCap 600 index doesn't take effect until Aug. 17, after which date it can be assumed that mutual funds and ETFs that track the composition of the SmallCap 600 will buy CoreCivic shares so that their holdings accurately reflect the index.