S&P 500 Snapshot: A Modest Gain On Weak Investor Participation
The S&P 500 rallied at the open and hit its 0.49% intraday high about 30 minutes into the session. It then slowly sold-off to a narrow trading range after the lunch hour and then sold-off to its 0.20% closing gain in the close vicinity of its intraday low. The mixed spurt of economic news at 10 AM, strong New Home Sales and weak Richmond Fed Manufacturing didn't seem to be much of a factor in today's trade. The general view among the pundits is that the market mavens (who aren't on vacation) are awaiting the Friday flavor of Fed Chair Yellen's speech at Jackson Hole.
The yield on the 10-year note closed at at 1.55%, unchanged from the previous close.
Here is a snapshot of past five sessions in the S&P 500.
Here is daily chart of the SPY ETF. Trading volume declined even further on today's modest gain.
A Perspective on Drawdowns
Here's a snapshot of selloffs since the 2009 trough.
Here is a more conventional log-scale chart with drawdowns highlighted.
Here is a linear scale version of the same chart with the 50- and 200-day moving averages.
A Perspective on Volatility
For a sense of the correlation between the closing price and intraday volatility, the chart below overlays the S&P 500 since 2007 with the intraday price range. We've also included a 20-day moving average to help identify trends in volatility.
Disclosure: None.