Stock Market Indices Marching Towards New Bull Market Highs

By: PhilStockWorld

Courtesy of Doug Short writes: Here is a update in response to a standing request from David England, a professor who has developed a popular college level stock market classes at John A. Logan College in Carterville, IL. In his presentations, he likes to disprove the standard message of Wall Street, “Don’t worry! The market will always come back.” I furnished David with some charts, and I now share them with regular visitors to my Advisor Perspectives pages.

Specifically, David had asked for real (inflation-adjusted) charts of the S&P 500, Dow 30, and Nasdaq Composite. So I created two overlays — one with the nominal price, excluding dividends, and the other with the price adjusted for inflation based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (which I usually just refer to as the CPI). The charts below have been updated through the December 31, 2012 close.

The charts require little explanation. So far the 21st Century has not been especially kind to equity investors. Yes, markets usually do bounce back, but often in time frames that defy optimistic expectations. Investors in the Nikkei 225 have been waiting a long time for a return to the peak of 1989.

The charts above are based on price only. But what about dividends? Would the inclusion of dividends make a significant difference? I’ll close this post with a reprint of my latest chart update of the S&P 500 total return on a $1,000 investment at the 2000 high.

Total return, including reinvested dividends, certainly looks better, but the real (inflation-adjusted) purchasing power of that $1,000 investment remains negative.

- Phil

www.philstockworld.com

Philip R. Davis is a founder of Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com), a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders. Mr. Davis is a serial entrepreneur, having founded software company Accu-Title, a real estate title insurance software solution, and is also the President of the Delphi Consulting Corp., an M&A consulting firm that helps large and small companies obtain funding and close deals. He was also the founder of Accu-Search, a property data corporation that was sold to DataTrace in 2004 and Personality Plus, a precursor to eHarmony.com. Phil was a former editor of a UMass/Amherst humor magazine and it shows in his writing -- which is filled with colorful commentary along with very specific ideas on stock option purchases (Phil rarely holds actual stocks). Visit: Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com)

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