Market Recap - Week of October 6 through October 10, 2025

The S&P 500 fell 2.4% this week amid a fresh round of tariff worries.

The index ended Friday's session at 6,552.51 and is now down 2% for October. It's still solidly in positive territory for 2025 with a gain of 11%.

Coming into Friday's session, the S&P 500 had been up on the week, having just reached a new high on Thursday. Gains were erased on Friday after President Trump said he is considering "a massive increase" in tariffs on Chinese products coming into the US. Trump also indicated he might call off a planned meeting set for later this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

All but two sectors in the S&P 500 posted weekly declines. The energy sector had the largest weekly drop, falling 4%. The sector's drop came as crude oil futures also fell on the week. Remarkably, every component of the sector fell.

NextEra Energy (NEE ) was the best performer in utilities, rising 4.1%. The stock received price target increases from analysts at Seaport Global and HSBC this week.

Last Week’s Economic Reports

Consumer sentiment fell to 55.0 in October.

Several economic reports have been delayed due to the US government shutdown. The September jobs report is still missing, and updates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics have been suspended until the government resumes operations.

S&P 500 Sector and Stylebox Returns

How to read the stylebox: The horizontal axis represents the investment style, which can be value, blend, or growth for stocks and mutual funds. The vertical axis shows market capitalization for stocks divided into large, medium, and small categories. The number in each box represents the percentage growth of the category that is the intersection of the column and the row. For example, large-cap value is in the top-left corner of the box, so the large-cap value category is up by 12.4% YTD (year-to-date).

Thought of the Week

The U.S. is known to have the most rigorous and investor-friendly corporate governance standards in the world, but other markets are catching up. Asian markets are undergoing sweeping reforms that are increasing focus on shareholders and driving better returns. The Tokyo Stock Exchange announced in March 2023 that companies with P/B ratios below 1x must publicly disclose and implement plans to improve their capital efficiency or face potential delisting. In 2024, it doubled down by setting up a framework to keep companies accountable, and in 2025, it announced another Action Program to further strengthen transparency and company dialogue with investors. The results speak for themselves:sharebuybackssoared90% y/yinFY2024, cross-shareholdings fell, and M&A activity hit a record $232 billion in the first half of 2025, helped by subsidiary privatization of large public companies. As a result, J.P. Morgan Investment Research projects the TOPIX P/E ratio could rise to 17–18x (from 16x currently) and ROE could reach 11% (up from 9%) by 2028.

Korea launched similar reforms with its Corporate Value-Up program in early 2024, but buybacks and shareholder proposals have ramped up more recently under the new market-friendly administration. Executed buybacks YTD have already exceeded the total 2024 level at $11 billion, partially contributing to MSCI Korea’s 65% rebound YTD.

While corporate governance reforms take time and may encounter challenges, they significantly enhance the potential for long-term growth. These compelling trends in international markets offer investors attractive opportunities to diversify their equity exposure.

Source: JP Morgan (edited)

Up Next

Economic data may be light if the US government shutdown continues. The shutdown has caused a delay in closely watched government data releases, including the September jobs report.

Thank you to all who attended this month's market Update webinar!

You can watch the replay on YouTube here

https://www.yourbestpathfp.com/post/monthly-market-update-webinar-october-2025.

The episode is also available wherever you listen to podcasts!