After months of stellar gains, the stock market experienced a small pullback in November. Considering how far the market has traveled, it wasn’t too destructive. However, some investors are on edge these days, expecting more of a downturn in the weeks ahead.
My Portfolio showed some weakness during the month in conjunction with the stock market, but I believe I made a little headway in catching up to the performance of the S&P 500 for the year. Information Technology stocks had a rough month, which allowed my Portfolio (which is very underweight in that sector) to gain ground compared to the S&P 500.
Healthcare led all S&P 500 sectors by a wide margin with respect to gains in November (~6%). Energy gained as well (~2%), but it was well off the pace. Utilities and Information Technology were the worst sectors with losses exceeding 4% for each of them.
Overall, 8 of the 11 S&P 500 sectors were in the red… so trying to eke out a Portfolio gain in November was a little like trying to swim upstream. The S&P 500 was down ~2% for the month. It’s returned over 13% (with reinvested dividends) thus far in 2025.
I’ll be covering my usual items in this month’s Portfolio Thoughts post…
- Price Movement – I’ll look at my top advancers and decliners in my Portfolio during the past month.
- Top 10 Review – I’ll update my Top 10 Portfolio stocks and how they changed rank this past month.
- Weightings – I’ll examine the sector weightings within my Portfolio and let you know where I’ve made progress with regard to getting into my preferred weighting ranges.
- Watch List – I’ll share which stocks I’m looking at as I prepare to invest my capital in the coming months.
Let’s check out my Portfolio Thoughts for November 2025…
Price Movement
Note – my price changes cover closing prices from 10/24/25 to 11/21/25.
Make it 3 consecutive months now where I’ve had more stock decliners than stock gainers. That’s a trend I’d like to see reverse! Worst of all, November was the most negative of the past 3 months for my Portfolio. The decliner/gainer ratio was nearly 2:1 in November. Of my 59 holdings (still counting recent sell Comcast), 38 dropped in price, while the remaining 21 managed to gain. As far as noticeable movers go (+/-10% or more), I had fairly equal numbers in both the green and the red. However, beneath the surface, there were many more stocks in the red, dragging my Portfolio down.
Here were the stocks with the biggest moves to the upside and downside…
Of my 21 stocks that rose in price in November, none climbed by 20%. But there were 6 stocks that recorded better than a 10% gain (the usual threshold I monitor for). In addition, another 6 stocks gained at least 5%.
My top gainers in November were:
- Amgen (AMGN), surging 15.69%
- Alphabet (GOOG), popping 15.02%
- Cummins (CMI), jumping 12.12%
- Merck & Co. (MRK), rising 11.74%
- FedEx (FDX), gaining 11.73%
Kudos to AMGN and MRK for making repeat appearances in my top gainers list this month. I like seeing that! Healthcare stocks have been on a roll. AMGN was 5th last month and 1st this month. MRK slipped from 2nd to 4th over the past month, but posted double-digit gains in each month… outstanding.
GOOG has been surging of late thanks to optimism surrounding its new AI model, Gemini 3, among other things. The stock reached a new 52-week high. It was my 2nd-best gainer in November. Unfortunately, only GOOG and Verizon Communications (VZ) were stocks that gained in my Communication Services sector this month.
Industrials was my 2nd-best sector in November, so it’s no surprise to see a pair of stocks from this sector show up in my top gainers. Both CMI and FDX looked strong in November with gains north of 10%. CMI has been on a tear… this is now 7 straight months of gains, with the stock gaining over 60% during that time. Impressive! The rise in FDX has been more modest, but it’s been 3 consecutive months of gains adding more than 16% to the stock price.
Note – no sectors in my Portfolio had all their holdings in the green this month… although Healthcare came close with only UnitedHealth Group (UNH) finishing in the red.
Of my 38 stocks that slid in price, thankfully none declined by more than 20%. However, 5 fell by more than 10%, and a whopping 16 more declined at least 5%. Needless to say, the overall performance of my Portfolio was negative this month.
My worst decliners in November were…
- Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), plummeting 15.44%
- UnitedHealth Group (UNH), sinking 11.73%
- Salesforce (CRM), retreating 10.88%
- BlackRock (BLK), dropping 10.73%
- Altria Group (MO), sliding 10.02%
This is now 2 months in a row that one of my Top 10 stocks has shown up on the top decliners list for the month. Last month it was Fastenal (FAST), and this month it was BLK. Such negative months from some of my largest positions certainly puts a dent in my Portfolio returns. This is the 2nd straight month of declines for BLK, but it was worse this month. Nearly all my Financials were down in November (save Aflac), but BLK was by far the worst.
A couple of Information Technology names showed up on my top decliners list in SWKS and CRM. SWKS continues to have a rough time of it. The stock price hasn’t quite reached the depths from April, but it’s not trading much higher. My trim a couple of months ago when the stock traded north of $83/share has looked fairly timely. As for CRM, it’s been struggling to gain any traction this year, drifting lower since mid-May. CRM is hovering just above a 52-week low.
In November, UNH gave up some of the nice gains it posted over the past 3 months. A combination of factors seem to have weighed on the stock in November, including ongoing concerns about high medical costs, margin pressures, and a recent criminal probe.
The last of my top decliners for November was MO. After rocketing higher in August and slowly drifting lower over the past two months, its price decline accelerated in November. This was due to sales coming up short in the Q3 earnings report, worrying investors about future sales performance. Declining cigarette volumes continue to persist.
Note – two sectors in my Portfolio had all their holdings in the red this month: Real Estate (3) and Consumer Discretionary (3). This made it back-to-back months for my Real Estate sector.
Top 10 Review
Movement within my Top 10 this month remained limited at best. However, one new stock did enter the Top 10. All of the action took place in the bottom portion of the Top 10.
The top 7 stocks remained the same as last month. Sure, some weightings changed a bit within this group, but in the end, no stocks in this group changed spots. The closest we came to movement was Qualcomm (QCOM) and AbbVie (ABBV) switching places at #3 and #4.
For those stocks that did move in the bottom portion of the Top 10, the biggest climb higher was just a single spot, while the biggest slip lower was a pair of spots. The new stock arrived in the #9 spot.
For the 2nd month in a row, seven of my Top 10 finished in the red. The worst of the bunch was the aforementioned decline from BLK (-10.73%). Fastenal (FAST), RPM International (RPM) and Visa (V) all retreated more than 5%, too. My newest Top 10 stock used the best gain of the group (5.3%) to join the Top 10. ABBV and Aflac (AFL) were able to notch gains above 3.5% as well.
Broadcom (AVGO) easily remained in my #1 spot, despite its stock price decline in November. Its weighting is more than twice as big as my #2 stock, AFL.
QCOM and ABBV are at #3 and #4, respectively, while V is a decent distance behind at #5.
There’s another dropoff to #6 and #7 where BLK and RPM are jockeying for position.
The first Top 10 mover I had in November was JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM). JPM rose one spot to #8, despite a small price decline during the month (< 1%).
Cracking the Top 10 and settling at #9 was newcomer Caterpillar (CAT). CAT has been on fire the past 3 months. While its November gain wasn’t as strong as it had in each of the past two months, it was enough to allow the stock to move into the Top 10. It was Lowe’s Companies (LOW) that tumbled out of the Top 10 to make room for CAT.
Continuing its drop in the Top 10 was FAST. The stock slipped two spots to cling to the #10 spot after losing almost 7% in November. FAST has fallen in price about 20% over the last quarter.
Now sitting outside the Top 10 are LOW, Nexstar Media Group (NXST) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). JNJ has been moving up substantially in the past 5 months. Can it finish the job and inject itself into my Top 10?
From the table above, my Top 10 holdings now comprise 42.79% of my Portfolio value. This is a decrease of 0.84 percentage points compared to last month. Negative returns for many of my Top 10 in November resulted in the reduced weighting.
As for the dividend weighting of my Top 10, it now stands at 25.74%. This is decrease of 0.95 percentage points compared to last month. Nearly one percentage point of the reduction is due to CAT (with its lower yield) replacing LOW in my Top 10. The dividend weight for V increased compared to last month due to its recent dividend raise.
Weightings
In general, for the Sector Diversification, I target being within +/-3 percentage points of the sector weightings of the S&P 500. For the SuperSector Diversification, I target being within +/-5 percentage points.
The “Weight Diff.” column shows which sectors sit outside my preferred weighting ranges. If I’m overweight a sector, it’s shaded green. If I’m underweight a sector, it’s shaded red. If I’m within my target weighting range, then no shading exists.
For a 3rd straight month, there were no changes with regard to having more or less sectors in my preferred weighting range. I continue to have 4 overweight sectors and 3 underweight sectors. Industrials is still my most overweight sector and Information Technology is still my most underweight sector.
My weighting in Healthcare jumped (+0.78 percentage points) due to the strong performance of my stocks in that sector. Meanwhile, Communication Services saw an uptick in weighting (+0.43 percentage points) due to my Meta Platforms (META) purchase.
My weighting difference in Financials got closer to my preferred weighting range (by 0.39 percentage points) due to the poor performance of my holdings in that sector.
As for dividend weightings, I still have 4 sectors exceeding 12%. All my Portfolio sectors provided at least a 4% dividend weighting, until Real Estate and Energy slid just beneath that level (+3.99%) this month.
My biggest change in dividend weighting was in Communication Services (-1.06 percentage points). This was the result of eliminating my high-yielding Comcast (CMCSA) position in November and replacing it with a much lower-yielding META. The next biggest change was the increase in my Bonds weighting (+1.20 percentage points) due to my PIMCO Corporate & Income Strategy Fund (PCN) addition this month.
As always, I’ll keep all my sector weightings in mind as I continue to adjust my Portfolio, and my watchlist.
Watch List
After my big META purchase about a month ago, I’m short on cash these days. In addition, I don’t think there will be much new capital investment moving forward since I no longer earn an income, making investment dollars hard to come by. However, I will still keep a watchlist, as inevitably I expect to sell a Portfolio holding and invest the proceeds in something else. At that point, having a list of stocks I wish to buy ready-to-go will benefit me.
Within my Portfolio, here are a few stocks that I’m watching for possible additions… I’ll start with my smallest positions first.
Salesforce (CRM) slipped further in price in November, to the point where I’d like to add some shares. I’ll target a price below $220 for now while it trades around $227.
NNN REIT (NNN) dipped below my $40 target early in the month, but due to limited funds I didn’t make a buy. The stock now hovers around $41, but that’s close enough to keep watching.
Amdocs Ltd. (DOX) is looking undervalued to me with the stock trading around $76. I may look to sell a stock somewhere else in my Portfolio and make an additional investment here to bolster the Information Technology weighting in my Portfolio.
Should Nike (NKE) dip below the $60 level, I’d consider adding some shares. I established my position in NKE back in April, 2016 at that level. A dip below $56 would be even better. Analysts seem to believe a bottom is in for NKE and they forecast strong earnings growth starting with NKE’s upcoming 2026 fiscal year.
Texas Instruments (TXN) remains on my radar with its price hovering just under my $160 target level. A price below $150 would really motivate me to obtain some additional shares.
Last month I mentioned a price below $250 would give me extra margin when it came to buying more Automatic Data Processing (ADP) shares. The stock just crossed below that level in November, but I didn’t buy due to being cash poor at the time. The stock still sits at $250. I may need to devise a way to get my hands on another share or two of ADP before it rebounds.
I mentioned last month that Comcast (CMCSA) was at the top of the chopping block for me. Well, the position is gone as of this month. I could no longer take CMCSA’s poor performance. Eastman Chemical (EMN) could be next on the chopping block, as this stock is also a weak performer, and I could afford to reduce my Materials weighting.
As for non-Portfolio stocks that I’m watching…
Nothing new here… I’m still watching the identical 4 stocks I covered last month.
Zoetis (ZTS) got hammered and fell right through my $140 price target this month after investors got concerned by lower operating margins and a reduced revenue outlook for the year when the earnings report was released. The stock actually dipped below $116 and currently trades around $122.
After much waiting, Costco (COST) has finally dropped below my $900 target. The stock now trades for $886, which is a 52-week low. I wouldn’t say the stock is undervalued (as it always trades at a premium), but it looks better priced than usual.
Cactus Inc. (WHD) crossed below $40 a couple of times during November. However, this wasn’t as low as it was back in early October when it got below $34. I’ll keep watching this one for now.
I added Waste Management (WM) to my watchlist last month. I was happy when the stock dipped under $200 last month, but it recovered a bit and sits at $212 now. More monitoring is needed.
Thoughts?
What do you foresee happening in the stock market during the final month of the year? Do you expect the Magnificent 7 stocks to re-gain their leadership role? Please share your thoughts!