Courtesy of Doug Short.
Today marks the third anniversary of S&P 500 index closing low at 676.53 on Monday, March 9, 2009. Intraday on the previous Friday it had hit the diabolical “666” (if we truncate 666.79) before closing at 683.38. Today the index has completed a three-day rally, up 0.36% at the close for a fractional 0.09% gain for the week. The year-to-date gain for the S&P 500 is now 9.01%..
From an intermediate perspective, the S&P 500 is 102.6% above the March 2009 closing low and 12.4% 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.
These charts are not intended as a forecast but rather as a way to study the current market in relation to historic market cycles.
