S&P 500 Snapshot: A Fractional Gain Ends The Narrowest Trading Range In 2016

The S&P 500 spent the day in its narrowest trading range of the 248 market days so far in 2016, a mere 0.22% from its -0.09% late morning low to its intraday high of 0.13% at the close, courtesy of a rally in the final 30 minutes of trade.

Here is a snapshot of the past five sessions.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 2.55%, the third consecutive close at this level.

Here is daily chart of the index. The pre-Christmas trading volume was the second lightest of the year, the lightest being the shortened trading session the day before Thanksgiving.

A Perspective on Drawdowns

Here's a snapshot of selloffs since the 2009 trough.

Here is a more conventional log-scale chart with drawdowns highlighted.

Here is a linear scale version of the same chart with the 50- and 200-day moving averages.

A Perspective on Volatility

For a sense of the correlation between the closing price and intraday volatility, the chart below overlays the S&P 500 since 2007 with the intraday price range. We've also included a 20-day moving average to help identify trends in volatility.