S&P 500 Snapshot: No Worries About That Bad Employment Report

US equity markets have apparently dismissed anxieties over Friday's depressing employment report and ignored today's weak Labor Market Conditions Index, which is generally thought to be a key indicator for the Fed. The S&P 500 opened higher and rose in a couple of arcs through the day to its 0.49% closing gain, which was a bit off the mid-afternoon 0.68% intraday high. Fed Chair Yellen's lunchtime speech in Philadelphia was generally upbeat and, in reference to Friday's jobs report, cautioned against putting too much significance on a single economic report. The index is now a mere one percent below its record close in May of last year.

The 10-year note closed at 1.73%, up two basis points from the previous close.

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

Trading volume was a bit light on today's advance.

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.