Global markets rallied today. The Nikkei and Hang Seng both rose in the vicinity of 1.6% and the Euro STOXX 50 surged 3.31%. US equity indexes followed suit. Our benchmark S&P 500 opened higher and rose fractionally above 1% in the opening 10 minutes. The index then continued to rise throughout the day to its 1.94% intraday high shortly before the close. It ended the session with a 1.83% advance, the fifth day of the latest rally.

The yield on the 10-year note ended the day at 2.07%, up 8 bps from the previous close.

Here is a snapshot of past five sessions.

Here is daily chart of the SPY ETF, which gives a more reliable sense of investor participation than the underlying index. Volume was light on today’s advance.

A Perspective on Drawdowns

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

For a longer-term perspective, here is a log-scale chart base on daily closes since the all-time high prior to the Great Recession.

Here is the same chart with the 50- and 200-day moving averages. The 50 crossed below the 200 on August 28th.