The S&P 500 has yet again reached another record high amidst a global pandemic and record unemployment. The index is up 8.58% YTD and has seen gains each day this week.

The U.S. Treasury puts the closing yield on the 10-year note as of August 28 at 0.74% which is above its record low (0.52% on 8/4/2020). The 2-year note is at 0.14%.

Here's a snapshot of the index going back to 2011.

A Perspective on Drawdowns

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

Here's a table with the number of days of a 1% or more change in either direction and the number of days of corrections (down 10% or more from the record high) going back to 2013.

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.