S&P Equity Returns History. The U.S. equity markets have delivered very different returns over the past 90 years. Use the following data arranged by decade to answer the following questions about these U.S. equity investment returns.

a. Which period shown had the highest total returns?

The lowest?

b. Which decade had the highest dividend returns?

When were dividends clearly not a priority for publicly traded companies?

c. The 1990s was a boom period for U.S. equity returns. How did firms react in terms of their dividend distributions?

d. How has the 2000s period fared? How do you think publicly traded companies have started changing their dividend distribution habits as a result?

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S&P 500 Equity Returns, 1926-2014 (average annual return, percent) 1926 to Period 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2014 Capital appreciation -5.3% 3.0% 13.6% 4.4% 1.6% 12.6% 15.3% -2.7% 5.9% Dividend yield 5.4% 6.0% 5.1% 3.3% 4.2% 4.4% 2.5% 1.8% 4.0% Total return 0.1% 9.0% 18.7% 7.7% 5.8% 17.0% 17.8% -0.9% 9.9%