October has a bad stock-market reputation that is not entirely earned, but earned it was in 2024. For all Octobers since 1980, the S&P 500 has been up more often (30 times) than it has been down (13 times). And October's average annual gain of 1.30% would put it in a respectable fifth place among all months, trailing (in ascending order) July, April, December, and November. This year, October began in very rocky fashion, with stocks falling early in the month. The middle weeks of the month were strong, and the S&P 500 set an all-time closing high at 5,864.67 on 10/18/24. Stocks wavered from that high, however, and were unable to hold mid-month gains. CPI data came in uncomfortably warm, and bond yields continues to soar from their post-FOMC lows set in mid-September. Despite a last-gasp rally to the 5,830s on 10/29/24, stocks crashed in the final two trading days of the month. Tech giants such as Alphabet and Microsoft revealed eye-popping capital-spending plans for AI investments, causing investors to wonder when the payoff from this technology was coming. The S&P 500 finished October 2024 down a little over 50 points and about 1% from September's end. The Nasdaq Composite was slammed on Halloween, losing nearly 2.8%. But because of strength into the final week, the growth index lost just half a percentage point in October. Given October's poor performance, the S&P 500 was ahead by 19.8% for the 2024 year as of 10/31/24. The Nasdaq lagged the S&P 500 all year but pulled ahead briefly in the October home stretch. The Halloween tech-massacre trimmed its year to date gain to 20.5%, putting it back behind the SP5 once again.

This pick list highlights constituents of the Morningstar US Mid Cap Index that we believe offer investors the best risk-adjusted return prospects. The market capitalization range for U.S. mid-caps typically falls between $1 billion and $8 billion and represents 20% of the total capitalization of the U.S. equity market.

Carnival is the largest global cruise company, with 92 ships in service at the end of fiscal 2023. Its portfolio of brands includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn in North America; P&O Cruises and Cunard Line in the United Kingdom; Aida in Germany; Costa Cruises in Southern Europe. It's currently folding its P&O Australia brand into Carnival. The firm also owns Holland America Princess Alaska Tours in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Carnival's brands attracted nearly 13 million guests in 2019, prior to covid-19, a level it reached again in 2023.

Carnival Corp. is a global cruise and vacation company primarily serving North America, the U.K., Germany, southern Europe, and South America. The company's portfolio of cruise brands includes names such as Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, Seabourn, Costa, AIDA, and Cunard.