AngloGold Ashanti (AU) had the highest return between 1996 and 1998 by a large-cap US stock, returning 28,510.5%.

ASSET	YEARS	% RETURN
AngloGold Ashanti (AU)	1996-1998	28,510.53%
IES (IESC)	1996-1998	2,665.68%
Thomson Reuters Corporation Common Shares (TRI)	1996-1998	2,222.22%
Amazon (AMZN)	1996-1998	2,096.14%
Jabil Circuit (JBL)	1996-1998	1,181.68%
Dycom Industries (DY)	1996-1998	893.46%
Viavi Solutions (VIAV)	1996-1998	676.22%
Heico (HEI)	1996-1998	656.52%
Best Buy (BBY)	1996-1998	655.43%
Monster Beverage (MNST)	1996-1998	617.95%
ResMed (RMD)	1996-1998	598.11%
Charles Schwab (SCHW)	1996-1998	542.56%
Nokia (NOK)	1996-1998	541.01%
TJX Companies (TJX)	1996-1998	537.09%
Microsoft (MSFT)	1996-1998	531.3%
Johnson Controls International (JCI)	1996-1998	513.59%
Dollar Tree (DLTR)	1996-1998	483.92%
Aegon NV ADR (AEG)	1996-1998	477.94%
Cisco Systems (CSCO)	1996-1998	460.61%
US Bancorp (USB)	1996-1998	456.42%
Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria SA ADR (BBVA)	1996-1998	437.53%
Capital One Financial (COF)	1996-1998	399.16%
Vodafone Group PLC ADR (VOD)	1996-1998	396.01%
Waters (WAT)	1996-1998	387.51%
NVR (NVR)	1996-1998	385.99%

Large-cap stocks are treated as having a market cap of $10B+.