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The 2026 scoreboard

The S&P 500 Just Hit a Record — Here's What Beat It in 2026, and What Got Left Behind

RaymondRates.my5 min read

The S&P 500 closed at a record on 4 August, up 13% since January. Plenty of things beat it — and the ones that lost are more interesting than the ones that won.

+56.6%
Korea's KOSPI, the year's winner
over 4× the S&P 500
+2.3%
A 3.83% Malaysian fixed deposit
same 217 days
−40.7%
Solana, the year's worst here
Bitcoin −27.1%, silver −12.1%

The 2026 scoreboard

Price change, 1 January to 5 August 2026KOSPI (Korea)+56.6%Brent crude+32.0%Nikkei 225 (Japan)+31.7%Copper+18.0%Nasdaq+14.4%S&P 500+13.0%Dow Jones+12.5%FTSE 100 (UK)+9.7%FBM KLCI (Malaysia)+4.1%Fixed deposit, 3.83%+2.3%Hang Seng (HK)+1.1%Gold−2.5%Silver−12.1%Bitcoin−27.1%Solana−40.7%Shaded row = the benchmark everything here is measured against.
Everything measured over the same 217 days. Five things beat the S&P; ten did not. Commodities and Asian shares led, metals and crypto trailed.
  • Asia led, not America. Korea and Japan both beat Wall Street by more than double.
  • Gold and silver went backwards. After a record January, both gave it all back.

The catch: winning the year is not the same as being at a high

Up on the year, but how far below its own 2026 high?gain since Januarybelow its 2026 highKOSPIhigh 22 Jun+56.6%−27.6%Brent crudehigh 31 Mar+32.0%−32.1%Nikkei 225high 25 Jun+31.7%−8.4%Copperhigh 2 Jun+18.0%−0.1%S&P 500high 4 Aug+13.0%at its high — nothing given back
The year's two biggest winners are also two of the furthest from their own 2026 peaks. Brent is up 32% and down 32% at the same time — both true, measured from different dates.
  • The KOSPI did both. Up 56.6% on the year, yet 27.6% below where it sat in June.
  • Pick your start date, pick your story. A headline return is only as honest as the date it counts from.
A screen showing stock market charts and price data
A record close says where an index is — not whether it got there cheaply. · Photo: Unsplash

What lagged, and how far things fell

A big fall is not the same as a bargain. Silver is 46% below its January record, Bitcoin 49% below its October 2025 peak, gold 21% belowJanuary. Those are facts about price, not judgements about value — sometimes a price falls because the story broke. Rates.my has no capital-markets licence and does not tell anyone what to buy. What follows is the distance from each asset's own high, nothing more.
  • Malaysia was quiet, not weak. The FBM KLCI added 4.1% and sits 1.3% off its own January high.
  • Hong Kong barely moved. Up 1.1% for the year — the weakest major market on this list.

The benchmark most Malaysians actually have

A 3.83% fixed deposit returned about 2.3% over the same 217 daysA fixed deposit beatHang SengGoldSilverBitcoinSolanaA fixed deposit lost toFBM KLCIFTSE 100S&P 500Nikkei 225BrentKOSPI
Not glamorous, but it is the real alternative for most people — and it quietly beat five of the fifteen things on the scoreboard, with no volatility at all.
  • Cash was not the worst call this year. A plain fixed deposit beat gold, silver and both coins here.

What to watch

  • Rest of 2026Whether the Asia lead holds. Korea and Japan have already given back a chunk since June.
  • OngoingGold and silver. Both spent 2026 unwinding a January record rather than building on it.
  • Your sideCompare any of this against the FD rate you can actually get today before deciding anything.
Not financial advice. General information as at 5 August 2026. Index and commodity figures are Yahoo Finance daily closes from 1 January to 5 August 2026; crypto is CoinGecko; the fixed-deposit figure pro-rates a 3.83% p.a. rate over 217 days. Past performance says nothing about future returns. Rates.my holds no CMSA licence, issues no price targets, and none of the above is a recommendation to buy or sell anything.

Sources & further reading

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