S&P 500 Snapshot: A Fractional Loss, But Well Off The Intraday Low

In advance of the Good Friday market holiday, the S&P 500 logged its third consecutive loss following a four-day rally. Before the US market opened, global markets had closed or were trading in the deep red. The S&P 500 plunged at the open and quickly hit its -0.70% intraday low. After a few hours of sideways volatility, the index drifted higher to its greatly trimmed loss of -0.04%, just a hair off its -0.03% intraday high in the closing seconds.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.91%, up three basis points from the previous close.

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

Here is a daily chart of the index. Volume going into the extended weekend was light.

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.