S&P 500 Equal-Weight's Biggest Monthly Edge Over Cap-Weight Since 2009
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on November 1, 2026.
Owning the cap-weighted index cost you 5.7 points last month, the widest equal-weight edge since April 2009, as money left AI names for the other 490 stocks.
BREAKING: The S&P 500 Equal-Weight Index outperformed the S&P 500 by +5.7 percentage points in October, its largest monthly outperformance since April 2009. This also marked its 2nd-largest monthly outperformance since the 1990s. The Equal-Weight Index surged +4.8% in October, https://t.co/w8f8u1d7Y7 https://t.co/XJ6mRNBJeS [Quoted @KobeissiLetter]: The "stealth" bear market is in full-swing. While the Nasdaq 100 erased -$4 trillion in 25 days, the "S&P 500 Excluding AI" hit a RECORD high on Friday. AI stocks fell over -13% in October while the S&P 500 Excluding AI gained+8%. What's happening? Let us explain. (a thread) https://t.co/4O0vqjjnLd
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In October, the S&P 500 Equal-Weight Index outpaced the standard cap-weighted S&P 500 by 5.7 percentage points, the widest single-month gap in favor of equal-weight since April 2009.
The divergence reflects a sharp rotation away from the largest index constituents, particularly AI-linked names, which fell more than 13% during the month, even as the broader non-AI slice of the market hit a record high.
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The Kobeissi Letter described the dynamic as a 'stealth' bear market, where headline index numbers masked the severity of losses concentrated in a handful of heavyweight stocks, while the rest of the index carried the equal-weight version to a strong month.
For investors benchmarked to the standard S&P 500, October was a reminder of how much single-sector concentration can drag on returns when momentum reverses, a spread that historically signals a meaningful shift in market leadership.