One of the key reasons Goldman Sachs believes returns from Wall Street’s S&P 500 index will drop over the next decade to a paltry 3 per cent a year (or just 1 per cent adjusted for inflation) is that the Magnificent Seven will start to look decidedly less magnificent.

The top 10 companies in the S&P 500 – including tech giants Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (parent of Google), Microsoft, Nvidia and Meta Platforms (parent of Facebook and Instagram) – account for a staggering 36 per cent of the index. But history shows dominant, giant firms struggle to maintain their dominance (and their earnings growth) for two reasons.