Amazon.com will replace AT&T in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index Friday.

The inclusion of Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, “allows the S&P to be reflective of the renewed interest in Internet commerce,” said Leo Guzman, who heads Guzman & Co., a Florida-based brokerage.

AT&T, the biggest U.S. long-distance phone carrier, is being bought by SBC Communications.

The news about Amazon, announced after the close of regular trading Monday, pushed the company’s shares up $2.69, or 6.3 percent, to $45.22 in after-hours trading.

The inclusion may help the stock reverse a 4 percent drop so far in 2005. Fund managers that mimic the S&P 500 exactly must purchase the stock, and investors who use the index as a benchmark may also buy it.

A sign of the times when AT&T is replaced by Amazon! This was announced after closing, yesterday. Nothing of interest from “analysts”, yet.