S&P 500 Snapshot: Caution in Advance of Central Bank Wednesday

Markets around the globe were cautious today in advance of tomorrow's announcements from the Fed and BOJ. Major Asian markets were fractionally lower, with the Nikkei closing at -0.16%. European markets were mixed in a narrow range. In the US, the Dow eked out a tiny 0.05% gain, the NASDAQ a larger 0.12% gain. Our preferred benchmark S&P 500 ticked up by a microscopic 0.03%.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.69%, down a single basis point from the previous session.

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

 

Here is daily chart of the index. Volume was predictably light in advance of the Central Bank Wednesay.

 

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.