Stocks just stormed back into the lead against bonds

And down the stretch they come!

It’s been a see-saw battle between stocks and bonds this year, aith stomach-churning volatility leading to a number of lead changes in recent weeks. Just a couple weeks ago, stocks stumbled, allowing the bond market’s steady performance to overtake the equities markets, including dividends and share prices gains.

But, equities roared back last week, with a bit of help from the Bank of Japan, and the US S&P 500 finished at a record closing high. (An intraday high the S&P set in September still holds.)

So far this year, the total return on the S&P 500 is roughly 11%, outpacing the lower volatility rise for the Barclays Aggregate US bond index, which is up a not-too-shabby 5%.