Will This Be Another ‘Lost Decade’ for the Stock Market?

After four decades of incredible performance, the stock market could be at the beginning of a lost decade.

Yes, the S&P 500 has dropped 2.5% on Friday, and is down 23% in 2022. But it’s impossible to overstate just how good stock market returns have been for investors over the last 40 years—and for even longer. From the S&P 500’s low of 102.20 in 1982 through its peak of 4818.62 in January 2022, the index returned 12.9% annually including reinvested dividends. That’s slightly above the average of 11.8% going back to 1928.