S&P 500 Snapshot: The Market Goes Nowhere

Global markets outside the US posted respectable gains. The Nikkei was up 1.07% and the FTSE rose 1.59%, the latter as a result of the BoE rate cut. The major US equity indexes went nowhere. The NASDAQ was up a fractional 0.5%, while the Dow and S&P 500 closed at -0.02% and 0.02%, respectively. The lethargy of the investor is well reflected in the ghostly trading volume in the SPY ETF, which had the smallest volume since the early close before Thanksgiving in 2015.

The yield on the 10-year note fell four basis points to 1.51%.

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

Here is a daily chart of the SPY ETF, where trading volume appears to be reflecting some combination of caution, indifference, summer doldrums or a holiday mindset.

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.