Courtesy of Doug Short.
From a market perspective, this morning’s plunge in new jobless claims was trumped by mounting tensions over sanctions against Russia and Putin’s sanction reprisal. The S&P 500 hit its 0.45% intraday high moments after the open. It then sold off in a couple of waves to its -0.81% intraday low shortly after 3 PM. Some buying in the final hour trimmed the day’s loss to -0.56%.
The yield on the 10-year Note closed at 2.43%, down 6 bps from yesterday’s close — the lowest since June 2013.
Here is a 15-minute chart of the past five sessions. The S&P 500 is up 3.31% year-to-date and down 3.94% from its record close on July 24th.
Here is a snapshot of the VIX volatility index back to December 2012. I’ve highlighted the 20 level, a round number traditionally associated with increased anxiety. There have been four VIX peaks over this timeframe. The recent intraday high of 17.57 occurred on August 1st.
Today’s volume was moderate as the index closed below its 100-day price moving average.
A Perspective on Drawdowns
The chart below incorporates a percent-off-high calculation to illustrate the drawdowns greater than 5% since the trough in 2009.
For a longer-term perspective, here is a pair of charts based on daily closes starting with the all-time high prior to the Great Recession.
