Stock gains whipped up in pandemic bubble resist being popped

While last year’s 20% hit to the S&P 500 was the worst since the financial crisis, it did little to chip away at the bounty laid up by buy-and-hold faithful. That’s evident in the S&P 500’s annualized return over the past 10 years, which stood at 11.7% even at last year’s trough. While down from 16% from a year earlier, the gain was still above the average of 10.6% over any decade since 1927, and beat all but four long-term returns at the end of 13 bear markets.