Absent a 12.14% December return this will be first-ever negative total return decade for the S&P 500. However, the 10-year annualized returns (Nov ’99 – Nov ’09) for other asset classes are as follows:
DJ U.S. Real Estate Index: 9.47%
Reuters Commodity Index: 8.90%
Barclays Aggregate Bond Index: 6.44%
MSCI EAFE: 2.31%
Much is likely to be written in the press in the coming months about “the lost decade,” but this is only true for allocations consisting just of U.S. equities.
