 Even if we were to inflation adjust, it would still be very much the case that the stock market has outpaced inflation. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have both easily posted double-digit gains this year. That's even though high inflation is often bad news for stocks, says Xu, because it causes the Federal Reserve to step in and cool the economy down. When the Fed is raising interest rates, that tends to reduce the value of the stock market.