Gold has tripled since 2019. The S&P 500, with every dividend reinvested, is up 160%.

Name: S&P 500 incl. dividends (charted by MacroSnaps)
Creator: Comex, S&P Dow Jones Indices (2026)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

S&P 500 incl. dividends262(Aug 26)Gold311(Aug 26)

Gold against the S&P 500 with dividends reinvested, both set to 100 at the end of 2019, monthly to 21 August 2026. Dividends are the fair test, and gold is still ahead: 3.1 times your money against 2.6.

Why this is happening

Central banks have bought gold at record pace since Russia's dollar reserves were frozen in 2022; a record 289 tonnes in the second quarter of 2026 alone. That bid does not care about price.
The buyers share one worry: deficits running near 7% of GDP and political pressure on the Fed make dollars and bonds feel less safe. Gold pays nothing, but it owes nothing either.
This is not a stock crash story. The S&P has handed investors 2.6 times their money since 2019; gold simply ran faster, as it last did when inflation and deficits ruled the 1970s.

The take

Gold tripling while stocks sit at records is new: in the 1970s gold needed a lost decade in shares to shine like this. So either the gold market is early to something the stock market cannot see, inflation, a debt reckoning, a weaker dollar, or one of the two is simply wrong. Both have been wrong before. They have rarely disagreed this loudly.

Source: Comex, S&P Dow Jones Indices (2026)

Use this chart

Use this chart anywhere, including commercially, and change it if you need to. The one condition is that you credit MacroSnaps and link back to this page. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Embed it

A picture of the chart, linked back. Works anywhere, including in newsletters and Markdown. The credit line comes with it.

<a href="https://macrosnaps.app/c/gold-beats-stocks">
  <img src="https://macrosnaps.app/charts/gold-beats-stocks.png" alt="Gold against the S&amp;P 500 with dividends reinvested, both set to 100 at the end of 2019, monthly to 21 August 2026. Dividends are the fair test, and gold is still ahead: 3.1 times your money against 2.6." width="640" style="max-width:100%;height:auto">
</a>
<p style="font:12px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif;color:#6b7280;max-width:640px">
  Chart: <a href="https://macrosnaps.app/c/gold-beats-stocks">MacroSnaps</a>,
  <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a>. Source: Comex, S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices (2026).
</p>

Cite it

Cites MacroSnaps for the chart. For the numbers themselves, cite the source below.

MacroSnaps (2026). "Gold has tripled since 2019. The S&P 500, with every dividend reinvested, is up 160%." Edition No. 50, 30 August 2026. https://macrosnaps.app/c/gold-beats-stocks

Permanent link: https://macrosnaps.app/c/gold-beats-stocks

The underlying data

MacroSnaps drew this chart. The numbers in it are published by Comex, S&P Dow Jones Indices (2026). Their terms, not ours, govern the underlying data.