Courtesy of Doug Short.
The S&P spent most of the day churning slightly in negative territory. In the last few minutes of the trading session, the index squeaked out a tiny gain of 0.04%. For the week, however, the gain was an impressive 3.78%.
The index is in the green year-to-date, up 2.18%, although it is 5.76% below the interim high of April 29.
From an intermediate perspective, the index is 90.0% above the March 2009 closing low and 17.9% 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.