S&P 500 Snapshot: A Modest Loss on an Energy Drag

Major markets around the globe posted modest declines with a big drop in oil as the underlying drag. The S&P 500 hit its 0.08% intraday high shortly after the open and then sold off it waves to its -0.45% mid-afternoon low. Some volatility in the final hour trimmed the loss to -0.29%. How substantial was the oil drag on the energy component? West Texas Intermediate Crude ended the day at -2.48%.

The demand for treasuries increased again. The closing yield on the 10-year note fell five basis points to 1.50%.

Here is a snapshot of past five sessions in the S&P 500.

On a daily chart of the index, we see that trading volume remains at August vacation levels.

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.