From a global standpoint, the big news today was the rally in oil. with West Texas Intermediate Crude Futures up over 6% for the day. European equity index traded higher on oil price optimism with the Euro STOXX 50 gaining 1.41%. US indexes appeared to follow the global trend, The S&P 500 rallied at the open and hit its 0.91% intraday high about 45 minutes into the session. But the 10 AM release of disappointing Wholesale Inventories for February took its toll. The Atlanta Fed trimmed its Q1 GDP forecast to 0.1%, and the S&P 500 gave back its gains in a couple of waves to its -0.01% intraday low late in the session. Some buying near the close lifted the index to its 0.28% gain for the day. The index fell 1.21% for the week, its worst performance in nine weeks.

Next week could provide some real market excitement with key economic reports (e.g., Retail Sales, CPI, Industrial Production), and it also marks first Q1 earnings reports, with Alcoa on tap for Monday.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.72%, up two 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. Trading volume on today’s action 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.