Over past century, almost all stock-market gains came from tech companies, data shows
Over the past 100 years, nearly all investor profits in the stock market have been generated by just a handful of companies, mostly technology giants. The remaining 96% of stocks have yielded virtually nothing, while one-month US Treasury bills averaged 3.3% returns.
Over the past century, nearly all stock-market gains have ended up in investors' pockets thanks to a very small number of listed companies, according to data reviewed by the magazine Ir. Most of these leaders are technology companies, at the forefront of which are Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft. Surprisingly, two Elon Musk companies also appear on the list — electric-car maker Tesla and space company SpaceX, although only for a short period.
While these elite stocks have delivered impressive returns, the rest of the market — roughly 96% of companies — has given investors practically nothing over the long term. The vast majority of stocks have failed even to reach the average 3.3% yield offered by one-month US Treasury bills over the same period. Such returns could be earned every month without taking on significant risk.
This trend shows how concentrated stock-market profits are and how much the choice of individual companies matters for long-term investing. It also demonstrates that the average performance of the broad market can be misleading, since most of the gains are made by only a few players.
