The S&P 500 rallied at the open, rose steadily through the morning, hovered in a narrow range for a couple of hours and the surged to its 1.23% intraday high at the start of the final hour of trading. Some profit taking in that final hour reduced the closing gain to a healthy 0.98%. Today’s optimism was apparently influenced by Apple’s substantial 3.71% bounce on reports that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought a stake in the company. Nevertheless, Apple remains 16.3% below its YTD high in April). US equities also took a positive view of a similar bounce in oil. West Texas Intermediate Crude ended the day up 2.96% percent.

As for the old “sell in May” adage, after nine sessions, the index is remains near the flat line at -0.06% for the month.

The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.75%, up four basis points from the previous close.

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

Here is a daily chart of the S&P 500. At today’s close the index has risen back above its 50-day moving average. Trading volume on today’s advance was unremarkable.

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.

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