I’ve just updated my Keeping Score page for last year’s performance.

The headline investment story of 2025 has been the unfolding of AI as a major factor in worldwide economic growth, including not only the global makers of software and enabling hardware but also materials suppliers, power sources and the substitution of AI for humans doing repetitive tasks.

A second major theme has been the weakness of the $US, and the substitution of gold as a store of value, as holders of Treasuries worry that Washington favors a weakening currency in order to reduce the real value of government borrowings.

A third, evident in the sector breakout of S&P results, is the deep underperformance of the Consumer discretionary and Consumer staples sectors–the former typically high in the performance vanguard in up years for the S&P. Last year, however, the S&P gained +16.4%, while Consumer discretionary was only ahead by about +5% and Staples by +1%.

A fourth is an elaboration on the third. For the first time in many years, the S&P 500 has been an extreme laggard among major world stock markets, despite its AI strength.