According to FactSet, the S&P 500's forward 12-month P/E ratio was 17.7 on November 5, 2026. That's below both its 5-year average of 19.8 and its 10-year average of 19.1, and it's the lowest reading since November 1, 2023, when it was 17.5.

The last time valuations were this low, on November 1, 2023, the S&P 500 closed at 4,238. On November 5, 2026, it was at 7,354. That's a gain of more than 3,000 points, or more than 73% (not including dividends), and valuations are about where they were back then. Pretty, pretty wild.

It speaks to the strength of earnings and how earnings drive prices higher over time.

What we hear in the media doesn't always line up with the facts. Often it doesn't come close. For a while now, one of the steady undercurrents in fear-driven headlines has been the job market, and the idea that it's always on the verge of collapse.

But as of September, US unemployment had stayed below 5% for 61 straight months. That's three months short of the longest streak on record, set from 1965 to 1970. The chart below shows it.

Apollo's chief economist, Torsten Slok, says we're close to "the longest period of sustained labor market strength in modern US history."

A 4% drop in the market isn't as unusual as you might think. By my count (using Bespoke's chart), there have been 53 since 1980. That's more than one per year.

But what each of those drops has in common is that, looking back, every single one of them was a buying opportunity.

I suspect we'll look back on Thursday's drop in exactly the same way, given a little bit of time.

I came across this on X. It's usually credited to Nadine Stair, 85, of Louisville, but it appears to be adapted from a 1931 essay by Don Herold.

Either way, it's a lovely thought. We spend far too much time planning and too little living.

Today, Nov. 3, is Election Day. Since 1970, the S&P 500 has averaged a 14.1% total return in the six months after a midterm election, compared with 5.7% over the same stretch in other years. BlackRock's explanation is that a big source of uncertainty gets cleared away.

Jeffrey Hirsch of the Stock Trader's Almanac has noted that the strongest six-month stretch of the four-year presidential cycle has historically started in November of midterm years. As Sam Ro points out at TKer, there's no guarantee the pattern repeats. Fourteen elections is a small sample, but it's not nothing.

A lot of naysayers like to argue that global poverty is only falling because the poverty line is set so extraordinarily low. Well, it turns out that no matter where you draw the line, the share of people living below it has fallen since 2000. At $3 a day, it dropped from 36% to 10%. At $10 a day, from 74% to 53%.

As usual, the progress continues with very little attention from the mainstream media.

In May 2025, Morgan Stanley's Michael Mauboussin and Dan Callahan studied the price history of more than 6,500 U.S. stocks. The chart below shows the 20 with the best total shareholder returns from 1985 to 2024. At its worst, the median stock in that group fell 72% from its peak. After hitting bottom, it took 4.3 years to get back to its old high. For comparison, the S&P 500's worst drop over the same period was 58%.

Aside from the difficulty of picking a winning stock (from 1926 to 2016, just 4% of U.S. stocks accounted for all of the stock market's wealth creation above Treasury bills), most people simply don't have the stomach to hold one.

I just added a new page to Market Return Data: S&P 500 Rolling Returns. It shows every 1- to 30-year holding period for the S&P 500, starting each month, with data back to 1871.

The chart below sums up what it shows. Since 1950, the worst 12-month stretch for the S&P 500 was a 41% loss and the best was a 60% gain. Stretch the holding period to 15 years and every single period finished positive. The worst 30-year stretch still compounded at about 9% a year.

The middle of the range barely moves. The median return lands between roughly 10% and 14% a year no matter how long you hold. What changes is how far the outcomes stray from it.

You can switch to after-inflation returns or pick any starting year back to 1871 and see how the picture changes.

It’s hard to “see” progress because progress is often defined by the number of people who aren’t dying of cancer or heart disease, who aren't starving, or who aren’t living in the dark without electricity (among other things).

We don’t see that kind of progress because we’re focused on the people still suffering, and so it looks like very little is changing.

But rest assured, progress is being made. As just one example, look at the chart below. The five-year relative survival rate for US cancer patients rose from 49% for those diagnosed in 1975–1979 to 71% for those diagnosed in 2016–2022, according to the American Association for Cancer Research’s 2026 Cancer Progress Report (h/t Human Progress).

Progress is always being made somewhere, somehow. We just need to take a second to notice.

One of the more counterintuitive market stats I’m aware of (if not the most counterintuitive) is that market returns are actually better, on average, following an all-time high than at other times. And it's not just the short-term (1-year) returns that are better, but the 3- and 5-year returns are better than all other time periods too.

Let this be your reminder that all-time highs may not be a time to sell, but to stay the course. Or maybe even, to double down.