Alphabet stock is showing positive momentum. What should traders watch with GOOG?
What Is Driving Alphabet’s Inclusion in the Dow?S&P Dow Jones Indices said Alphabet will replace Verizon Communications in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, effective before the market opens on June 29. The index provider pointed to Alphabet’s larger market value, higher share price, and exposure to faster-growing areas like advertising, cloud services, AI, hardware, autonomous systems, health technology and digital media distribution.Alphabet’s AI narrative also remains a swing factor for sentiment after reports that at least five researchers left Google’s core AI team over seven days, including Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer to OpenAI and DeepMind’s John Jumper to Anthropic.Alphabet also faces headline risk on the regulatory front with YouTube’s CEO set to testify at a child-safety hearing tentatively scheduled for July 28, after the White House backed the James T. Woods Act and pushed for CEOs to be substituted.Despite Tuesday’s slight pullback, long-term sentiment received a boost as Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak maintained an Overweight rating on Alphabet and raised the price target from $375 to $415.Critical Price Levels for GOOG to WatchAlphabet is in a "cooling phase" on the medium-term view: it’s trading 2.1% below the 20-day SMA ($356.25) and 5% below the 50-day SMA ($367.19), but it’s still 3.4% above the 100-day SMA ($337.13) and 10.9% above the 200-day SMA ($314.44). That mix often reads as consolidation inside a broader uptrend, which lines up with the stock’s 96.51% gain over the past 12 months.MACD is the cleaner momentum lens right now, with the indicator below its signal line and the histogram negative—another way of saying upside pressure has cooled and buyers may need a fresh push to regain control. Structurally, the 20-day SMA sitting below the 50-day SMA is a short-term bearish crossover, but the longer-term golden cross (50-day above 200-day) remains in place after July 2025.
