Note – the monthly percentages noted below are through 10/30/26.

What a month!  Information Technology and Communication Services were NOT the places to be in October.  Both saw a strong performance reversal compared to last month.  The weakness of those two sectors put the S&P 500 into the red this month.  The index lost a bit over 1%, despite the majority of the S&P 500 sectors (8 of 11) recording a positive return in October.

Of those 8 sectors in the S&P 500 that were in the green, all gained more than 3.5% during the month.  The Energy sector led the way (as it has almost all year) with close to a 14% gain in October.

In the red for October were Industrials (-1.05%), Info Tech (-6.26%) and Communication Services (-15.23%).  The Info Tech sector had the largest impact on the index though given its significant weighting in the index.

Since my Portfolio is underweight the Info Tech and Communication Services sectors, I didn’t fare as poorly as the index in October.  My Portfolio actually gained for the month, which I happily accept.

Through October, my Portfolio is now much closer to keeping pace with the S&P 500 performance for the year.  I only lag the index by 0.65 percentage points now.  Considering I was lagging close to 6 percentage points at the end of September, I like my recovery.

Through October, the S&P 500 has a very nice 10.73% price return for 2026.  This becomes 11.77% once we include reinvested dividends.

Year-To-Date (YTD) only two S&P 500 sectors are in the red: Communication Services (-11.85%) and Consumer Discretionary (-2.62%).  The Energy sector by far and away has provided the best return YTD at 56.62%.  No other sector has as much as a 20% gain, but Healthcare and Info Tech are very close.

For the 2nd consecutive month, half of my Top 10 holdings were in the green, but that did not include what were my two top holdings.

I’ll cover 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 for possible purchase or sale in the event I decide to shuffle up my holdings.

Let’s check out my Portfolio Thoughts for October 2026…

 

Price Movement

Note – my price changes cover closing prices from 9/25/26 to 10/27/26.

It was a nice turnaround for my individual Portfolio stocks when it came to gainer/decliner ratio in October.  The ratio was a solid 2.5:1.  Of my 56 holdings, 40 of them rose in price, while the remaining 16 fell.  Stocks in the green easily outnumbered those in the red and were more compelling when looking at the magnitude of the gains on the green side versus the magnitude of the losses on the red side.

Here were the stocks with the biggest moves to the upside and downside…

 

Of my 40 stocks that rose in price in October, one was easily the leader, rocketing higher by more than 30%.  No other stocks hit the 20% plateau.  I did have five stocks surpass 10% (the usual threshold I monitor for), and another fifteen stocks gain at least 5%.  Lots to like this month with regard to my gains.

My top gainers in October were:

• Accenture (ACN), surging 33.53%
• Lockheed Martin (LMT), popping 19.91%
• Intuit (INTU), jumping 19.09%
• Chevron (CVX), advancing 11.63%
• Automatic Data Processing (ADP), rising 11.17%

 

A pair of Tech stocks showed up in my top gainers list for October, including ACN and INTU.  Count a pair of Industrial stocks as well in LMT & ADP.  One Energy name in CVX finished out the list.

ACN was easily my top performer, recording a whopping 33.53% gain.  Apparently, investors changed their expectations for the company, no longer fearing AI would disrupt their traditional IT consulting business.  A beat on fiscal Q4 revenue and earnings early in the month helped spark the rally in the stock price.

LMT had a blowout Q3 earnings report.  Record backlog, and new large contracts for F-35 fighter aircraft and missiles, along with many analyst upgrades were catalysts for the stock’s 19.91% rise.  LMT closed out the month above $600/share for the first time in seven months.

INTU was my top decliner last month, but rebounded nicely to show up as a top gainer in October.  INTU benefited from a rebound in AI skepticism as management showed how AI is being integrated across its products.  A good deal of value-oriented buying was probably going on as well given how the stock has been punished in price thus far in 2026.  INTU gained 19.09% for the month, but is still down close to 50% for the year.

As noted earlier, Energy has been the standout sector this year, and CVX is right in the middle of it.  Ongoing tensions in the Middle East and disruptions to global energy supplies have driven up the price of oil.  This resulted in the refining and upstream segments of CVX’s business seeing a massive surge in profitability.  CVX rose 11.63% in October, and has risen in price for four straight months now.

Lastly, ADP provided strong quarterly financial performance and saw an October recovery in private-sector payroll growth to help boost its price by 11.17%.

Note – four sectors in my Portfolio had all their holdings in the green this month: Real Estate (3), Utilities (3), Consumer Discretionary (2), and Energy (2).

 

Of my 16 stocks that retreated in price in October, none dropped by more than 20%, and just two fell by more than 10%.  Even better, only three additional stocks lost more than 5%.  Thus, losses were fairly well contained in my Portfolio in October.  It’s always nice to keep a lid on those losses.

My worst decliners in October were…

• Meta Platforms (META), sinking 17.49%
• Caterpillar (CAT), diving 13.18%
• Qualcomm (QCOM), tumbling 8.81%
• Alphabet (GOOG), falling 7.11%
• Verizon Communications (VZ), sliding 6.69%

 

Three of my top decliners are representatives of the Communication Services sector (META, GOOG, VZ).  This is no surprise given the big loss I noted for this sector at the beginning of this post.

META & QCOM were my top two gainers from September, but they turned to the dark side in October.  Thankfully, both their losses this month were less than the gains they recorded last month.

META gave up 17.49% in October due to their AI infrastructure and data center spending plans, negative free cash flow (due to Q3 spending and a legal charge) and the announcement of a new class of non-voting common stock that has investors concerned about dilution of their shares.

After a massive run-up in price earlier in the year, CAT has been giving back some of the gains it posted, including 13.18% in October.  Jitters around its high valuation and AI infrastructure spending in general weighed on the stock.  Also, late in the month CAT missed on Q3 revenues, and offered cautious Q4 guidance due to a soft construction outlook.

QCOM retreated 8.81% this month, as it succumb to the sector-wide semiconductor sell-off.  Investors seem skeptical about short-term returns on heavy AI infrastructure spending coupled with higher Treasury yields.  QCOM has been quite volatile with regard to price swings over the past 6 months and this continued in October.

The 7.11% drop I have for GOOG was prior to their massive plunge this past week that accompanied their Q3 earnings release.  The small loss can be attributed to the broad tech sector sell-off during the month.

VZ slumped 6.69% this month.  One reason was the spectrum acquisition that SpaceX made during the month, potentially ramping up future competition.  This news triggered sell-offs of the legacy U.S. wireless carriers as investors feared more long-term pricing pressure, and possible customer losses.  Late in the month, a Q3 revenue miss from VZ as outlined in their earning release didn’t help the stock either.

Note – no sectors in my Portfolio had all of their holdings in the red this month.

 

Top 10 Review

There was an elevated amount of Top 10 movement in October, despite the fact that there were no changes to the actual Top 10 stocks compared to last month.  Only the first and last stocks in the Top 10 held steady in my rankings.

Even though my Portfolio had a good month from a performance perspective, one wouldn’t know it from just looking at the Top 10, as half of my Top 10 posted a gain while the other half notched a decline.

The largest move up was just a single spot, while the largest move down was two spots (done twice).

 

Broadcom (AVGO) was just one of two stocks to maintain their ranking from last month.  AVGO continued to stay at #1 spot in my rankings, despite a small 2.97% loss in October.  AVGO is still more than twice as big as my next largest holding.

Climbing one spot into the #2 ranking was AbbVie (ABBV).  The stock gained 8.34% in October and has risen in each of the past two months.

Aflac (AFL) also moved up one spot this month.  AFL landed in the #3 spot on the heels of its 7.27% gain.  The gain stopped a two-month losing streak.

Dropping two spots to settle in the #4 spot was Qualcomm (QCOM).  The 8.81% decline by QCOM kept its habit of wild monthly swings this year intact.

Rising one spot to claim #5 in my Top 10 was Visa (V).  V notched a healthy 9.39% gain in October, allowing the stock to exceed $400/share for the first time in 2026.

Fastenal (FAST) also moved up one spot in the rankings this month.  FAST only posted a modest 2.22% gain in October, but it marked a 4th consecutive month of gains.

Caterpillar (CAT) was my only Industrials stock to post a loss this month.  Its 13.18% decline was significant, and it caused the stock to fall two spots in my rankings to finish at #7.

Once again swapping spots at #8 and #9 were a pair of Financials in BlackRock (BLK) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM).  It was BLK moving up and JPM moving down.  BLK was a gainer in October, recording a 4.58% gain, while JPM was a decliner, losing 2.12% during the month.

Holding down my #10 spot once again was Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).  JNJ had a marginal loss of 0.92% during the month, but this broke its streak of 5 consecutive monthly gains.

 

 

Farther outside my Top 10 are Union Pacific (UNP) and RPM International (RPM).  UNP (+9.53%) had a good October, bringing the stock closer to cracking the Top 10.  However, RPM (-2.02%) couldn’t stay in the green in October, leaving it less likely to move into the Top 10 by next month.

 

From the table above, my Top 10 holdings now comprise 43.49% of my Portfolio value.  This is a decrease of 1.25 percentage points compared to last month.  Losses from what were my top two holdings last month (AVGO & QCOM) didn’t help with maintaining the weighting.  All of my Top 10 stocks continue to have at least a 3% weighting.

As for the dividend weighting of my Top 10, it now stands at 26.50%.  This is an increase of 0.18 percentage points compared to last month.  My sale of Nike (NKE) in early October, bumped the relative dividend weighting of my remaining Portfolio holdings just a bit.

 

Sector Weightings

 

In general, for Sector Diversification, I target being within +/-3 percentage points of the sector weightings of the S&P 500.  For 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.

Once again, there’s no change to the number of sectors outside my preferred weighting range.  It remains at 6.  This includes 3 overweight sectors and 3 underweight sectors in my Portfolio.  Industrials remains my most overweight sector and Information Technology remains my most underweight sector.

Five of those six sectors outside my preferred weighting range got closer to being in my preferred weighting range this month.  Only my underweight Consumer Discretionary sector got worse, and that was due to my Nike (NKE) sale early in the month.  The weighting difference in Communication Services got noticeably better due to my Meta Platforms (META) purchase.  It was the biggest delta in weighting difference percentage that I had for the month.  Another purchase in this sector could actually get me into my preferred weighting range.

As for dividend weightings, the biggest percentage change came in Consumer Discretionary (from 4.63% to 3.69%), and that was due to the NKE sale.  I now have four sectors that provide between 12.5% and 15.5% of my total dividend income.  These sectors are Healthcare, Financials, Information Technology & Industrials.  Both Energy & Real Estate still provide just less than 4% of my dividend income, but neither has my lowest dividend weighting, as they were surpassed by Consumer Discretionary (3.69%) – again due to the NKE sale.

 

As always, I’ll keep all my sector weightings in mind as I continue to adjust my Portfolio, and my watchlist.

 

Watch List

Since my Portfolio dividends are now used for living expenses (since I’m no longer working), I don’t expect to purchase stocks very often.  Yet, I could choose to sell an under-performing stock and invest in a potentially better one.  Thus, I plan to keep looking for opportunities and keeping my watchlist up-to-date.

I only made a couple of Portfolio moves in October.  One was a NKE sale as opposed to a NKE buy as pondered last month.  The other was a META buy that wasn’t on my radar to begin last month.  I only made the move after a significant META decline later in the month.

 

Within my Portfolio, here are a few stocks that I’m watching for possible additions…

Closed-end fund Eaton Vance Enhanced Equity Income Fund (EOI) has dropped a few percent in price since I initiated my position in early September.  Thus, I wouldn’t mind averaging down at the current level given that the fund is my 2nd smallest Portfolio position.

Hershey Co. (HSY) remains on my watchlist.  Early in the month it crossed under $160 and I should have made a purchase then, but I was busy unloading NKE.  HSY is currently my 4th smallest position and I’d like to make it bigger.

NVIDIA (NVDA) has been on the decline this past month and now trades around $205.  I’d consider adding should the price get below $200, even though my cost basis is currently $175.  NVDA is currently my 5th smallest position.

NNN REIT (NNN) remains my 7th smallest position and I’d still consider adding some below $40.  I had a chance to do just that about one week into October, but didn’t get it done.  The stock currently trades at $41… so not too far away.

With both Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOG) getting hammered late in October, both are on my radar for possible additions.  Both reside in the Communication Services sector where I’m underweight, and I’d like to add their growth element to my Portfolio.  For the moment, I’ll target under $600 for META and under $275 for GOOG.

 

Considering stocks I might sell…

T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) remains a trim candidate for me if it climbs above $129, but it’s not trading close to that level right now.

UGI Corp. (UGI) is a sale candidate if it climbs above the $40 level.  Despite the nice price gains it’s made this year, the company hasn’t raised its dividend since May, 2023.

Trimming a small amount of my Fastenal (FAST) position could be in the cards.  It’s looking a bit overvalued at nearly $52, and its payout ratios (both earnings and free cash flow) make me a bit worried.  Besides, I’m overweight in Industrials and a FAST trim would get me closer to my preferred weighting range.

I’ve talked about selling my Eastman Chemical (EMN) position before, as it’s not my best performer and it would reduce my Materials weighting.  However, I’d prefer to do it with the stock trading above $72.50 (gets me even), and it currently trades around $66.50.

 

As for non-Portfolio stocks that I’m watching…

Waste Management (WM) moved up about 13% in October.  It never dipped under the $200 level I was hoping for in October, so I’m taking WM off my watchlist for now.  I haven’t been watching anything else outside my Portfolio.

 

Thoughts?

With Communication Services and Info Tech getting wrecked in October, are there any stocks from these sectors moving onto your radar?  Please share your thoughts!