| Chart of the Day |
| OCTOBER 7, 2026 |
MONEY & MARKETS • DIVIDENDS |
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| For Every $100 in the S&P 500, You Collect $1.05 a Year in Dividends |
| The lowest dividend yield in the index’s 155-year history, right as Treasuries pay five times more. |
| 4.2% |
→ |
1.05% |
155-YEAR
MEDIAN |
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OCT 2026
TODAY |
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| S&P 500 trailing dividend yield vs. its long-run median, calculated from data beginning 1871. |
| Source: Robert Shiller Dataset (Yale University), 2026 |
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| You own the S&P 500. Maybe through an index fund in your 401(k), maybe through an ETF you picked up a few years back. Here’s what it pays you right now: 1.05%. One dollar and five cents for every hundred dollars you have in it. That is the lowest yield in the index’s entire 155-year history. |
| Most people shrug at that. “Who cares about dividends when the price goes up?” Fair enough... except for most of those 155 years, dividends were the main reason you owned stocks. The long-run median yield is 4.2%. In the 1980s, it averaged 4.2%. In the 1960s, over 3%. Today’s 1.05% isn’t a small dip below average. It’s one quarter of the historical norm. |
| And here’s the part that really gets me. A 10-year Treasury bond pays north of 5% today. That’s roughly five times what the S&P 500 pays. You’re taking all the risk of owning stocks... and collecting one-fifth the income you’d get from a government bond. That gap is enormous. During the 2021 frenzy, at least Treasury yields were near zero, so stocks still looked competitive for income. That excuse is gone. |
| How did we get here? Stock prices tripled while dividends barely budged. S&P 500 companies spent $943 billion buying back their own shares last year instead of paying it out to you. Buybacks push the stock price up. They don’t put a dime in your pocket. |
| If you’re retired or anywhere close, this isn’t a footnote. It’s the whole equation. You can collect over 5% from Treasuries with zero stock market risk, or accept 1.05% from the S&P while hoping prices keep climbing. For the first time in a generation, the boring option pays five times more than the exciting one. |
