Courtesy of Doug Short.
The S&P 500 sold off on today’s poor August employment report — an ironic bit of news on the last business day before Labor Day. The index lost 2.53% for the day but closed the week down only a fractional 0.24%. Monday marks the 129th anniversary of the first Labor Day on September 5, 1882. Investors will have three days to ponder what today’s bad numbers portend for the economy and the markets. The index is in the red year-to-date at -6.65%, which is 13.91% below the interim high set on April 29.
From an intermediate perspective, the index is 73.5% above the March 2009 closing low and 25.0% 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.
For a bit of international flavor, here’s a chart series that includes an overlay of the S&P 500, the Dow Crash of 1929 and Great Depression, and the so-called L-shaped “recovery” of the Nikkei 225. I update these weekly.
These charts are not intended as a forecast but rather as a way to study the current market in relation to historic market cycles.
