The US equity market has historically performed well over the years. Stocks generally tend to grow over time and an investor with a long-term horizon can earn a decent return in equities than other asset classes. Over the past 100 years US stocks have had more positive returns years than negative ones. The following chart shows the average annual return of stocks from 1926 to 2025 by calendar year:

Click to enlarge

Source: Student of the Market-January 2026, Blackrock

A few observations on the above chart:

• In the past 100 years, the market has lost money in just 26 years.
• The market returned the average of 8% to 12% in only 6 years.
• In 36 years the market has had a return of over 20%.
• Over the century, stocks earned average or above average returns more times than they were down.

The entire report in the above link is worth a read.

Related ETFs:

• SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)

Disclosure: Long SPY