Courtesy of Doug Short’s Advisor Perspectives.
Global markets were relatively subdued today, teetering around the flat line as the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) opened its two-day session. To one decimal place, the Hang Seng rose 0.5% but the Nikkei fell 0.5%; the DAX and CAC 40 slipped 0.3% but the FTSE rose 0.4%. Our benchmark S&P 500 rallied at the open to its 0.43% intraday high and immediately sold off to its -0.10% intraday low. It then use used yesterday’s close for a bit of trampoline practice in advance of tomorrow’s press release. The index closed with 0.19% gain.
The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.94%, up three 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. Volume was unremarkable on today’s relatively quiet trade in advance of the Fed minutes.
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.
