US equity markets posted modest losses today, performing worse than most major Asian and European indexes. A 13K rise in weekly jobless claims was no help to the market, and today's plunge in oil was also a contributing factor, with WTIC down 2.30%. The S&P 500 stuttered at the open and hit its -0.51% intraday low a little over an hour later. Some buy-the-dip action lifted the index to its 0.13% lunch-hour high. it then struggled with the flat-line during the afternoon and closed the day with a 0.14% loss. for the past three sessions the 2144 price level has alternated between support and resistance. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.76%, unchanged from the previous close.

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

(Click on image to enlarge)

Here's a daily chart of the index. Volume ticked up slightly in today's trade.

(Click on image to enlarge)

A Perspective on Drawdowns

Here's a snapshot of selloffs since the 2009 trough.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Here is a more conventional log-scale chart with drawdowns highlighted. 

(Click on image to enlarge)

Here is a linear scale version of the same chart with the 50- and 200-day moving averages. 

(Click on image to enlarge)

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.

(Click on image to enlarge)