The S&P 500's Thanksgiving Leftovers in August 2026

August 2026 was a good month overall for the Thanksgiving Leftover Stocks of 2025.

Compared to their July 2026 snapshot, both our hypothetical indices of the ten worst stocks within the S&P 500 (Index: SPX) during 2025 saw month-over-month gains. The market cap-weighted index of these stocks increased from 87.4% to 91.4% of its value on the day after Thanksgiving 2025, while the equal-weighted index grew more, rising from 88.5% to 94.7%.

Both these indices are still lagging behind the overall S&P 500 index. The benchmark index increased from 108.2% to 112.1% of its day-after-Thanksgiving Day 2025 value in the month from the July to August snapshots.

The following chart shows the performance of all three sets of stocks, with the two Thanksgiving Leftover stock indices continuing to lag behind the S&P 500 index by a wide margin.

It’s worth noting why the equal-weighted version of the ten stock index is performing better than the market cap-weighted version. The largest component of the market-cap weighted index is Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG), which accounts for 23.5% of its value. Shortly after the July 2026 snapshot, Chipotle’s stock plunged when jalapeno peppers served at the chain’s restaurants in Minnesota were linked to an outbreak of salmonella.

Although Chipotle acted quickly to pull all potentially affected jalapenos from its restaurants, investors sent its stock down sharply, losing nearly 16% of its value in a week. Since then, Chipotle’s stock has largely recovered to its pre-jalapeno recall level.

That recovery however lagged behind the improvement of several other Thanksgiving Leftover stocks, which gave the edge to the equal-weighted version of the index. The stock of Gartner (NYSE: IT) led the month, rising from 63.4% to 82.5% of its value on 28 November 2026 as investors shook off some of the AI disruption discounting they had earlier imposed on it. the stock price of Factset Research Systems (NYSE: FDS) also saw outsized gains for the same reason, rising from 95.6% to 106.6% of its post-Thanksgiving Day 2025 level.

Two of the individual Thanksgiving Leftover stocks lost notable value over the past month. Deckers Outdoor (NYSE: DECK) declined from 111.0% to 101.6% of its 28 November 2025 value, while the stock price of Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) continued to fall through its continually lowering floor.

The spaghetti chart tracks the relative movements of 2025′s ten Thanksgiving Leftover stocks during the last nine months with respect to their value on the day after 2025′s Thanksgiving holiday.

Nine months after Thanksgiving 2025, five of the S&P 500′s Thanksgiving Leftover stocks have risen above their 28 November 2025 level, while the other five have dropped below it.

In cased you missed it, our extended discussion of The Trade Desk’s woes as the worst of the 2025′s Thanksgiving Leftover Stocks is available here. We’ll check back in with the Leftover Stocks near the end of September 2026.