Yahoo

In a wild October for markets, these stocks were the biggest winners and losers

Explore stocks on Coinbase
Intel was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 during October with a 45.3% decline, while Alphabet was down 18.7%.
Intel was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 during October with a 45.3% decline, while Alphabet was down 18.7%. - MarketWatch illustration/iStockphoto

October brought a lot of carnage in tech stocks, but you might not guess that from the S&P 500's performance.

The S&P 500 SPX declined 0.9% for October, even though 72% of stocks in the large-cap benchmark index were up for the month.

Most Read from MarketWatch

The S&P 500 is about 40% concentrated in its largest 10 stocks by market capitalization. And while the index was down, the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF RSP was up 5% for October — reflecting the underlying strength in stocks, even as many of the largest technology companies have fared poorly as investors question the AI infrastructure build-out. And as you can see below on the list of the month's worst performers, even non-IT companies, such as Caterpillar CAT, were hit hard during what might be a temporary backlash against the rapid pace of data-center construction.

Among the largest 10 components of the S&P 500, Nvidia NVDA (the largest of all) was down 10.4% for October, while Alphabet GOOGL GOOG dropped 18.7%, Amazon.com AMZN declined 3.5%, Broadcom AVGO was down 7.1%, Meta Platforms META was down 15.2% and Micron Technology MU fell 16.9%. (All price changes in this article exclude dividends.)

Read: The rest of the market is leaving Big Tech behind after a historic comeback

See: Alphabet's stock just triggered a 'death cross.' Could the worst of the selloff be over?

Also: Amazon's stock drops — even in the face of a bold new cloud forecast

Rounding out the largest 10 components of the index, Apple AAPL rose 3.5% for October through, while Microsoft MSFT was up 1.8% for the month, Tesla TSLA was up 12.7% and Eli Lilly LLY soared 22.5%.

Read: The major reason Microsoft's stock is heading higher after earnings

Also read: Lilly raised sales guidance for third time this year as Zepbound sales soar. Its stock closed at a record high.

One more Big Tech tidbit: SpaceX SPCX is not yet a component of the S&P 500; it's stock declined 10.7% during October.

The S&P 500's best October performers

These were the 20 best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 for October:

Company

October price change

2026 price change

Accenture ACN

40.8%

-3.7%

PTC PTC

39.4%

12.2%

Hasbro HAS

35.8%

45.2%

Equifax EFX

34.5%

-14.9%

Roper Technologies ROP

33.5%

4.8%

Crown Castle CCI

33.1%

-0.2%

Gen Digital GEN

32.3%

7.1%

APA APA

27.2%

115.9%

Dow DOW

26.0%

48.4%

Lockheed Martin LMT

25.1%

31.7%

Pentair PNR

25.0%

-36.4%

Tyler Technologies TYL

23.8%

-13.1%

Intuit INTU

23.7%

-48.5%

ConocoPhillips COP

23.1%

64.5%

GoDaddy GDDY

22.8%

-5.5%

Gartner IT

22.6%

-9.3%

Eli Lilly LLY

22.5%

31.9%

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals REGN

22.4%

20.2%

FactSet Research Systems FDS

22.1%

13.6%

Cboe Global Markets CBOE

21.9%

33.7%

Source: FactSet

October's worst S&P 500 performers

These 20 components of the S&P 500 fell the most for October:

Company

October price change

2026 price change

Intel INTC

-45.3%

78.2%

Reddit RDDT

-35.6%

-60.1%

Sandisk SNDK

-33.9%

384.8%

Teradyne TER

-31.6%

41.7%

Seagate Technology Holdings STX

-30.1%

134.1%

Twilio TWLO

-29.9%

44.1%

Lam Research LRCX

-27.2%

39.7%

Coherent COHR

-26.9%

14.0%

Bloom Energy BE

-26.6%

133.8%

Marvell Technology MRVL

-25.7%

131.1%

Comfort Systems USA FIX

-25.5%

32.1%

Robinhood Markets HOOD

-24.5%

-24.9%

F5 FFIV

-24.0%

32.5%

Fortinet FTNT

-23.9%

71.4%

Applied Materials AMAT

-23.7%

51.8%

Caterpillar CAT

-23.2%

8.7%

Skydance SKYD

-23.0%

-40.7%

Coinbase Global COIN

-23.0%

-36.5%

ServiceNow NOW

-21.6%

-31.4%

Flex FLEX

-21.4%

43.1%

Source: FactSet

Intel INTC was the S&P 500's worst performer during October, with its shares plunging after the company disappointed investors with its revenue forecast .

More: After Intel's historic stock drop, analysts say there's no reason to buy the dip

Click on company tickers for more information about any stock, index or exchange-traded fund.

Read: Tomi Kilgore's detailed guide to the information available on the MarketWatch quote page

Don't miss: 11 bargain-priced stocks of companies that have huge growth potential over the next two years

Most Read from MarketWatch

Mobilize your Website
View Site in Mobile | Classic
Share by: