The market has been reversing its gains earlier in the year, so much so that the S&P 500 is now down 1.5% year-to-date. The past two years have seen the same index post stellar gains back-to-back, and those gains were mostly spearheaded by big-cap stocks.
However, historically speaking, the market delivering a third year of such returns would be unprecedented. Investors believe that 2025 will likely be a year when the market starts to cool off, and recent events have started a trend toward just that.
Big-cap stocks are now leading the way down as tariff and AI-related fears hurt them the most. Many big-cap companies have invested significantly in these tech trends, which investors have now soured on.
Still, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the big-cap losers year-to-date. Many of them have declined enough to open up buying opportunities.
A graph on a big screen with a group of people around it discussing ‘Data Performance’.
Methodology
For this article, I screened the worst-performing big-cap stocks year-to-date.
I will also mention the number of hedge fund investors in these stocks. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
15. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 86
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is one of the largest independent oil and natural gas companies.
The stock is down significantly so far in 2025 due to a decline in oil prices, though natural gas prices have been up recently. Regardless, the drop in oil caused a 3.7% decline in Q4 2024 revenue to $14.7 billion.
Net income fell almost 16% to $2.4 billion, and this has caused ConocoPhillips to underperform its peers. Broader macroeconomic fears and the shock of tariffs have also contributed to COP stock being red year-to-date.
The consensus price target of $133.47 implies 47.28% upside.
COP stock is down 7.86% year-to-date.
14. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 62
Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) is the largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. It also makes engines.
The stock is down significantly so far in 2025 as Caterpillar missed revenue estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter and reported a 5% decline in revenue to $16.22 billion.
This was below the consensus estimate of $16.61 billion. All major business segments reported lower sales volumes, and the company also warned of a slight sales drop for 2025 due to weak demand caused by high borrowing costs and inflation.
Several analysts then downgraded the company’s earnings outlook and the implementation of new tariffs is also negatively impacting it.
The consensus price target of $383.8 implies 17.57% upside.
CAT stock is down 9.60% year-to-date.