Courtesy of Doug Short.
The S&P 500 was a mild downward roller-coaster through much of the day, presumably driven by weaker than expected retail sales and further delays on the Greek bailout. But rumors of a Wednesday agreement between Greek conservatives and lenders triggered a rally in the final 30 minutes that almost took the index back to break-even. At the close the index was down 0.09%, which keeps it half a point north of the 1350. The index is up 7.39% year-to-date and only 0.96% below its interim high at the end of April 2011.
From an intermediate perspective, the S&P 500 is 99.6% above the March 2009 closing low and 13.7% below the nominal all-time high of October 2007.
Below are two charts of the index, with and without the 50 and 200-day moving averages.
For a better sense of how these declines figure into a larger historical context, here’s a long-term view of secular bull and bear markets in the S&P Composite since 1871.
These charts are not intended as a forecast but rather as a way to study the current market in relation to historic market cycles.
