S&P, Dow, Nasdaq: Real Returns Since 2000 Peaks

Inflation-adjusted returns for the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq show that $1,000 invested at their early-2000 peaks grew to roughly $3,900 by the close of June 2026, representing a real compounded annual return of about 5.3%. Data are updated through the June 30, 2026 market close.

On an index-by-index basis, $1,000 placed in the SPY ETF at the S&P 500 peak in March 2000 has a real purchasing-power value near $3,930, a compounded annual return of 5.34%. A $1,000 investment in the DIA ETF at the Dow’s January 2000 peak is worth about $3,918 in inflation-adjusted terms, a 5.29% real annualized return. The QQQ ETF, tracking the Nasdaq-100 from its March 2000 peak, has a real purchasing-power value close to $3,875 and a 5.28% real compounded annual return. The Consumer Price Index for urban consumers (CPI-U) was used to convert nominal values into real terms.

Month-over-month results for June 2026 were mixed on a price basis excluding dividends. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% from May, the Dow rose 2.5% and the Nasdaq dropped 2.8%. After adjusting for inflation, those changes become -1.7% for the S&P 500, 1.9% for the Dow and -3.4% for the Nasdaq.

Longer-term patterns show weak returns through the first 15 years of the 21st century and stronger gains more recently. Over the last 10 years in real terms the S&P 500 rose about 149%, the Dow about 127%, and the Nasdaq about 164%.

The three benchmarks measure different slices of the U.S. market. The S&P 500 is market-cap weighted and includes roughly 500 large U.S. companies across 11 sectors. The Nasdaq indexes are market-cap weighted with heavier exposure to technology and growth companies; the QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100 specifically. The Dow is a 30-stock index weighted by share price and represents long-established blue-chip firms. SPY, DIA and QQQ are ETFs that track those respective indexes and are used here to illustrate how an initial price investment would have performed after adjusting for inflation.

The data set includes nominal price series excluding dividends and CPI-U-adjusted price series. All figures refer to index-tracking ETFs and are measured from each index peak in 2000 through the June 30, 2026 close.