In the age-old contest between stocks and bonds, stocks triumphed once again in 2014—at least in the US. The broadest gauge (pdf) of the investment-grade US bond market, the Barclays US Aggregate bond index—it doesn’t include speculative-grade debt—delivered respectable returns of 5.97% for the year, including capital appreciation and coupon payments. The US benchmark S&P 500 easily outpaced that, delivering a 13.69% return from price gains and dividend payments combined. (Price gains alone accounted for an 11.39% increase.) While stocks didn’t match their 2013 returns of 32.39%, 2014 marked the third straight year ... (full story)