Barchart: Why Gold and Inflation Are the Keys to Long-Term Investing Success
Article by Tony Daltorio in Barchart
It seems to be the best of times for stock investors. The S&P 500 Index has smashed record after record, artificial intelligence (AI) euphoria is everywhere, and the “Trump trade” is running wild.
And yet, for all the exuberance, U.S. stocks are actually on track for their second-worst performance over the past 25 years, if you adjust returns for inflation. That’s according to Deutsche Bank’s famous study on market gains over the nine quarter centuries since 1800.
In fact, the yearly advance is so modest, it puts the asset class on track to underperform gold (up nearly tenfold since 2000) for the first time ever.
Since the turn of the century, the S&P 500 has seen real annual compounded returns of 4.9%, compared with 6.8% for gold. This is unique among the nine quarter-century periods examined by Deutsche Bank.
The past quarter-century saw the second-weakest stretch of ......