A few months ago, The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story with the headline "Stocks Tarnished by 'Lost Decade.'" The article noted that the stock market was trading at the same level that it had been nine years previous and suggested that the prospect of a decade with no (or negative) returns for equities is quite real.
This is startling, perhaps, but also true.
After the dizzying tech-fueled run-up of the late 1990s, the broad U.S. stock market peaked in 2000. Since then, we've had some steep downs, ups—and downs. The market briefly reached new highs in October 2007 but retreated from those levels in the fallout from the subprime lending crisis.
Over the next year or so, as we draw closer to the ten-year anniversary of the market's 2000 high-point, the ten-year return figures for stocks and stock funds are likely to remain modest—even if the market produces respectable returns until then. Simply put, the market's peak is casting a long shadow.
Sources: Bloomberg, Vanguard.
Note: Data through June 23, 2008.
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