Here's the Average Stock Market Return in the Last 10 Years, and What Wall Street Expects in the Future

Approximately 5,500 companies were listed connected the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Exchange arsenic of September 2025, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).

Many of those companies are grouped into indexes that way assorted aspects of the wide market. The astir fashionable indexes are the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI), and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC). Read connected to spot however they performed implicit the past 10 years.

The S&P 500 measures the show of 500 ample U.S. companies that screen astir 80% of home equities by marketplace value. The scale was created successful 1957, though its precursor was introduced successful the 1920s. Inclusion is constricted to companies that conscionable circumstantial eligibility requirements, including mostly accepted accounting principles (GAAP) profitability and a minimum marketplace worth of $22.7 billion.

The S&P 500 is mostly considered the champion gauge for the wide U.S. banal marketplace owed to its scope and diversity. The 5 largest holdings successful the scale are listed by weight:

1. Nvidia: 7.9%

2. Apple: 7.1%

3. Microsoft: 6.3%

4. Alphabet: 5.4%

5. Amazon: 3.8%

The S&P 500 precocious 216% implicit the past decade, compounding astatine 12.1% annually. Those figures bash not see dividends.

Investors tin get vulnerability to the S&P 500 by purchasing shares of an scale money similar the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tracks the show of 30 ample U.S. companies. The scale was created successful 1928, though its precursor was introduced successful the 1890s. Inclusion is mostly constricted to stocks successful the S&P 500, and the enactment committee typically chooses companies that person an fantabulous reputation, person demonstrated sustained growth, and are of wide involvement to investors

The Dow Jones is mostly considered a bluish spot scale owed to its absorption connected estimation and sustained growth. Unlike the S&P 500, which is weighted by marketplace cap, the Dow Jones is weighted by stock price. The 5 largest holdings are listed:

1. Goldman Sachs: 10.4%

2. Caterpillar: 7.3%

3. Microsoft: 6.4%

4. American Express: 4.6%

5. Amgen: 4.5%