Courtesy of Doug Short.
It’s the fifth consecutive day of the current S&P 500 rally. The index finished the day up a modest 0.57%, but the weekly gain is an impressive 5.35%. September may indeed turn out to be a good month after all. The index is only down a mere 0.24% month-to-date.
The index is in the red year-to-date at -3.31%, which is 10.82% below the interim high set on April 29.
From an intermediate perspective, the index is 79.7% above the March 2009 closing low and 22.3% 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.