Oil prices did a nosedive today after the Saudi Oil Minister ruled out production cuts, and later in the morning, the latest Consumer Confidence reading surprised to the downside (more here). The S&P 500 opened lower and sold off sharply for the first 90 minutes and then drifted to its -1.34% intraday low early in the final hour of trading. The index closed the session with a 1.25% loss. It’s now down an even 6% YTD and 9.83% from its record close last May.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.73%, down 4 basis points from the previous close.

Here is a snapshot of past five sessions.

Here is a daily chart of the index. Trading volume continues to fade.

A Perspective on Drawdowns

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

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.

Here is the same chart with the 50- and 200-day moving averages.