JPMorgan Adds New Stocks to Its October Favorites List

JPMorgan has added new names to its October list of favorite stock ideas, including American Express, Liberty Energy and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Each carries an overweight rating from the banks analysts. The refresh lands after a split September on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 4.3%, the SP 500 slipped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.9%. October Arrives With a Friendlier Track Record September has long been the weakest month for US stocks, as BeInCrypto noted at the start of the month. Barchart data show SPDR SP 500 ETF total returns averaging 2.27% in October since 2010. That ranks third among all 12 months, behind November at 3.09% and July at 2.79%. September averaged a 0.48% loss over the same stretch. Meanwhile, the third quarter closed with the Dow down 3%. The SP 500 and the Nasdaq each advanced at least 2% over the period. Why Do JPMorgans October Stock Picks Include a Falling Card Issuer? JPMorgan sorts its overweight-rated stocks into growth, income, value, and short strategies. American Express is one of five new names and sits in the value group. The stock closed at $302.78 on October 2, down 18.16% year to date, Google Finance data shows. American Express Stock Performance. Source: Google Finance Doubts over consumer spending and volatile credit rates have weighed on the shares. Analyst Richard Shane still backs the stock. AXP remains a core holding for investors looking for industry leading high returns and disciplined return of capital (dividend plus repurchases 3% of shares year after year), he stated. Can AI Demand Keep Carrying Stocks That Already Rallied? Liberty Energy, a growth pick, has climbed 52% over the past year. Its Liberty Power Innovations unit builds on-site generation for large power users. In January, the unit agreed to supply up to 1 gigawatt of power for Vantage Data Centers within 5 years. Analyst Arun Jayaram expects tight power supply to keep that demand going. We are seeing a reinforced structurally tight behind-the-meter power backdrop tied to data center load growth, with a power deficit expected to persist into 2030, which supports a multi-year demand runway for distributed generation providers, Jayaram said in a note to clients. Thermo Fisher, the second named growth pick, closed at $654.80 on October 2, up 13% year to date. Its shares have gained more than 25% over the past 3 months. In September, Mayo Clinic launched Precure, an early disease detection venture, with Thermo Fisher as founding partner. Analyst Casey Woodring sees further gains from wider AI adoption and US biopharma reshoring.