S&P 500 Snapshot: Start of a Last Minute December Rally?

Equity markets around the world had a good day. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.58%, China's Shanghai topped that at 0.85%. Europe did better. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 were up 1.94% and 1.81%. Our benchmark S&P 500 popped at the open traded sideways through the morning, and then drifted to its 1.22% intraday high early in the final hour. It closed with a trimmed gain of 1.06%. Is this the beginning of a last-minute December rally? With two days left in 2015, the S&P 500 is up 0.95% for the year but down 0.10% from November's close.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 2.32%,up 8 bps from yesterday's close. The yield on the 2-year note closed at 1.09%, its highest close since August 2009.

Here is a snapshot of past five sessions.

Here is a daily chart. The index is ended the day above its 50- and 200-day moving averages and is only 2.46% off its record close in May. In keeping with holiday tradition, volume on today's rally was thin.

A Perspective on Drawdowns

Here's a snapshot of selloffs since the 2009 trough.

For a longer-term perspective, here is a log-scale chart base on daily closes since the all-time high prior to the Great Recession.

Here is the same chart with the 50- and 200-day moving averages. The 50 crossed below the 200 on August 28th.