S&P 500 Snapshot: First Monthly Decline Since February

The S&P 500 opened lower and steadily sold off to its -0.68% intraday low during the lunch hour. The trend then reversed, and the index erased most of the loss to finish the session with a modest 0.24% decline. This was seventh loss in nine sessions and the eighth loss in the twelve sessions since the record close on August 15th.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at at 1.58%, up one basis point from the previous close.

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

Here is monthly chart of the index. The fractional -0.12% monthly close was the first negative month since February.

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.