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The S&P 500 closed at a 68-month low today. Given that the CPI report came out today, here’s an interesting stat. Adjusted for inflation, the S&P 500 has advanced just 23.9% in 40 years. Annualized, that’s 0.54%.

This means that almost the entire gain came from dividends. I should add that this is a bit of playing with numbers since 40 years ago was a cyclical high, and I hope we’re near a cyclical low.

Inflation over the last 40 years has increased by 513.5%. The S&P 500 closed today at 806.58. On November 19, 1968, the S&P 500 closed at 106.14. So the index has grown by 660%.

Posted by edelfenbein at November 19, 2008 4:09 PM