The S&P 500 has traded sideways for five months and the index investors who stayed the course haven’t made progress.
The index closed Friday at 7,580.07, a penny above its May 29 close of 7,580.06.
In between, it fell as low as 7,266 in June and climbed as high as 7,818 on October 6 before giving it all back.
Friday's 1.8% drop, the worst day since June, sealed the round trip.
And yet the penny is only an index story.
The equal-weight S&P 500 rose 4.5% over the same period, which pushes back on the supposed end of the rotation story from the first half of the year.
The equal-weight index’s lead on the market-cap weighted index widened in October with the S&P 500 down 0.9%.
Energy and consumer staples both gained more than 10% in the month, while tech fell 8.2% and communication services dropped 9.9%.
Equal-weight outperformed by 5.8 percentage points last month, marking the widest margin since April 2009.
That came right after equal-weight had trailed by 4.6 points in September and media headlines pounded the table on top-heavy market action.
As Bespoke Investment Group strategists noted, October was actually the equal-weight index's second-best month against the cap-weighted S&P 500 since 1990. The swing from September was more than 10 points, the biggest monthly reversal in either direction since at least 1990.
There have been just four instances when equal weight outperformed by five points or more in a month, during 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2009.
Two of those came shortly after major market lows.
Elsewhere
🏦 Two Fed presidents said interest rates need to rise again. St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem said another hike will need to happen soon, and traders are pricing in about a 76% chance of a December increase, according to CME's FedWatch tool. (CNBC)
📉 Intel shares plunged nearly 29% for their worst day since 1974. The chipmaker's fourth-quarter forecast came in well short of expectations, erasing nearly $140 billion in market value. (Yahoo Finance)
📈 Exxon and Chevron hit all-time highs after refining profits surged. Exxon's quarterly profit doubled to $15.4 billion as US refineries ran at full capacity to capture high diesel prices. (CNBC)
Rapid-fire
Regeneron stock rallied 13% after earnings beat estimates (Yahoo Finance)
More than 300 S&P 500 stocks rose last week even as the index fell more than 0.5% (Searching for Signals)
Reddit sank 29% for its worst day since going public in 2024 (CNBC)
Roblox fell 18% after sharing an outlook that pointed to a bookings decline of as much as 15% (Yahoo Finance)
This tech-forward health stock keeps compounding as its competitors lose market share (Best Ideas Club)
Palantir heads into earnings after a 29.4% jump on its last report (Opening Bell Daily)
Rivian rose 6% after third-quarter revenue grew 38% (Yahoo Finance)
Amazon and Intel stocks fell after earnings despite double-digit sales growth (Opening Bell Daily)
On this day
🗓 November 2, 2017: President Trump nominated Jerome Powell to succeed Janet Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve. Powell took over the role in February 2018.
Last thing
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