Purpose:  The challenging economic climate and increasing inflationary pressures have made it necessary to re-evaluate inflation research and its impact on the stock market. The purpose of this study is to use bibliometric analysis to review scholarly writing on stock returns and inflation from 1975 to 2022.   Design/methodology/approach:  This study analyses bibliometric markers such as the number of citations, authors, journals, and institutions using the Web of Science database to discover publishing patterns and illustrate commonalities.   Findings:  The study indicates that the volatility domain has gained more attention, therefore there is a necessity for future research to model predictive accuracy to match the rising volatility and uncertainty environment. Due to the expanding energy theme from bibliographic coupling analysis and the oil-related macroeconomic factors cluster from author keyword co-occurrence analysis, the study revealed a research gap that underlines the need for a green and sustainable stock market.   Research, Practical & Social implications: The study suggests a need for future research to increase academic collaboration and to contribute toward the development of theoretical and empirical literature.   Originality/value:   The results revealed that it is vital to revise the current theory to integrate theoretical implications in light of the volatile market conditions and rising inflation rate.