With over 95% of the earnings data for the fourth quarter of 2021 now reported, we thought it might be a good time to visualize the historic yields for the S&P 500 (Index: SPX). The following chart presents the trailing year earnings and dividend yields for the index over the past 150 years, from January 1871 through December 2021.

For December 2021, we find the earnings yield for the S&P 500 is 4.70%, which places it within the middle of the range it has fallen during the past thirty years. The index's dividend yield however is 1.46%, which comes within a few tenths of a percent from its all-time low recorded at the peak of the Dot-Com Bubble in August 2000.

At this point in 2022, both measures of the relative valuation of the S&P 500 have risen as the value of the index has fallen throughout the year to date.