Courtesy of Doug Short.
The S&P 500 closed its fourth consecutive day of gains with a 0.90% advance, which puts the index in positive territory year-to-date, up 0.61%, although it’s still 7.21% below the April 29th interim high. But there are still four trading days left in 2011. Santa has worked his magic on the market in advance of Christmas. Perhaps he’ll work overtime next week to take us to a new interim high. Incidentally, today’s gain lifted us above the 200-day moving average by about six points.
From an intermediate perspective, the index is 87.0% above the March 2009 closing low and 19.2% 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.
