S&P 500 Snapshot: A Scary Day On Wall Street

Volume on today's roller coaster ride was massive -- 109% above the 50-day moving average.

Today the S&P 500 turned in quite a dramatic performance. The index opened lower and plunged to its -3.04% intraday low in the early afternoon. That's the deepest intraday low since the -3.86% nosedive in November 2011. A buy-the-dip strategy subsequently kicked in, and the index closed the day with a greatly trimmed -0.81% decline.

The bond market saw comparable drama. The yield on the 10-year Note closed at 2.15%, down 6 bps from yesterday. However, the intraday volatility was stunning. The TNX 10-year yield index hit a morning low of 1.87%.

Here is a 15-minute chart of the past five sessions.

Volume on today's roller coaster ride was massive -- 109% above its 50-day moving average.

A Perspective on Drawdowns

Today's intraday low in the S&P 500 was 9.48% off its record close last month. The drawdown at the close was 7.40% below the record close. We are close to the general definition of a correction, a 10% drawdown. The chart below incorporates a percent-off-high calculation to illustrate the drawdowns greater than 5% since the trough in 2009.

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For a longer-term perspective, here is a pair of charts based on daily closes starting with the all-time high prior to the Great Recession.

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