Stock market closes the books on a 'lost decade'

For the first time since the 1930s, the Dow is ending lower for the period. Some see value in the market now.

By Tom Petruno
LA Times

December 31, 2009

The U.S. stock market today will close out its best year since 2003, an amazing comeback from what felt like Armageddon to many investors just nine months ago.

Yet today also ends by far the worst decade for stocks overall since World War II. At 10,548 on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 20% for the year -- but still 8% below its level at the end of 1999.

The last time the Dow failed to make any net progress in a decade was in the 1930s, when it sank 39% during the Great Depression.

Not surprisingly, Wall Street optimists see the market's last 10 years, and the gloom this "lost decade" has generated, as a better excuse to buy stocks than to sell.

(More here.)