S&P 500 Snapshot: Earnings Doldrums

With no economic news to digest, the US markets were probably focused primarily on earnings. The S&P 500 hits its 0.35% intraday high shortly after the open and sold off in three waves to its -0.67% intraday low shortly before the close, which saw a trimmed loss of -0.58%. The 500 essentially split the difference between the Dow, which logged a modest -0.28% loss, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ, which posted a -0.84% decline.

Here is a snapshot of past five sessions.

Volume on today’s decline was unremarkable.

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.