The S&P 500 suffered a weak October, declining 2.1% as rising bond yields and violence in the Middle East unnerved investors.  The rise in Treasury yields reflected the market coming to grips with a “higher-for-longer” Federal Reserve amid positive economic surprises (strong retail sales and red hot Q3 GDP), but also included rising term premiums, Quantitative Tightening headwinds and softer foreign demand. Energy (-6.0%) and Consumer Discretionary (-4.5%) were the worst performing sectors with Utilities (+1.3%) the only sector to register a gain in October.  Small-cap stocks were the worst performers, dropping almost 7.0% for the month.  Mid-cap stocks were only a little better at -5.0%.  From a style perspective, Growth outperformed value in the large-cap space, but value was better in mid-cap and small-cap for the month.