Texas Gov. Greg Abbott rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday to celebrate an index that tracks the stocks of publicly traded companies headquartered in the Lone Star State.
The Texas Capital Texas Equity Index ETF — whose holdings include blue-chip stocks Tesla, Exxon Mobil, Charles Schwab, Waste Management and Crowdstrike — began trading on the stock exchange on July 14.
Abbott, who is in New York to highlight the ongoing migrant crisis ravaging both his state and the Big Apple, was joined on Wall Street by Texas Capital Bank President and CEO Rob C. Holmes, NYSE Vice Chairman and Chief Commercial Officer John Tuttle and other Texas Capital executives.
“[The fund] gives people that aren’t blessed enough to live and work in Texas to invest in Texas,” Holmes told The Post on Thursday.
The ETF, the first-ever representing companies based in a specific state, closed at $24.13, a gain of about 1%.
“There are over 30 countries in the world with an economy smaller than Texas that have their own ETF,” Holmes said.
With a GDP per capital of $2.36 trillion, Texas is on track to surpass France as the seventh largest economy in the world.
Holmes noted that Texas, which represents 10% of the US economy, boasted the fastest expansion in the fourth quarter of last year.
Abbott, holding the wooden gavel and waving his hand after ringing the bell, did not comment.
Last year, Tesla, the electric car maker run by Elon Musk, unveiled its massive Giga Texas factory in Austin to serve as its new global headquarters — relocating its base from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Charles Schwab, the financial services firm, relocated to Texas from San Francisco in 2019.
Texas has managed to attract several companies that have departed high-tax states like California and Illinois, including cybersecurity firm McAfee, energy giant Chevron, software company Oracle, and tech firm Hewlett Packard.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
