S&P 500 Snapshot: A Fractional Gain on Strong Economic Data

The big pre-open economic news was an upward adjustment to Q3 GDP to 3.2%, exceeding consensus forecasts of 3.0%. The S&P 500 stuttered at the open, no doubt perplexed by the apparently strengthened odds of a December rate hike. The index then rallied to its 0.40% intraday high about 90 minutes before the close, at which point some profit taking trimmed the gain to a fractional 0.13%.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 2.30%, down two BPs from the previous close and six BPs off its interim closing high set at the end of last week.

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Here's a daily chart of the S&P 500. Volume was relatively light on today's fractional gain. 

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A Perspective on Drawdowns

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

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

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

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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.

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