This morning as we ended a two-week stay in Germany, the British newspapers we grabbed at the Berlin airport were primarily focused on Deutsche Bank as a potential trigger for a global financial crisis. The S&P 500 paid relatively little attention to the upward revision to Q2 GDP (from 1.3% to 1.4%) or the better than forecast jobless claims. Rather, weakness in financials took center stage. The index churned in the shallow red during the morning and then plunged during the early afternoon to its -1.21% intraday low. A bit of afternoon buying trimmed the closing loss to 0.93%.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.56%, down one basis point from the previous close.

Here is a snapshot of past five sessions in the S&P 500.

Here is daily chart of the index. Volume picked up on today's selloff, and the index has slipped again below its 50-day price moving average.

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.