January volatility continued on Thursday. The S&P 500 opened higher and quickly rose to its 1.06% intraday high. It then plummeted to its -0.49% low at the end of the first hour of trading. It then oscillated into the green and traded sideways to its 0.55% closing gain. The index is down 7.37% year to date and 11.14% off its record close last May. The general view is that Thursday's gain was largely supported by a rise in oil prices. West Texas Light Crude closed the day with a 4.85% gain.
The yield on the 10-year note closed at 2.00%, down 2 basis points from the previous close.
Here is a snapshot of past five sessions.
Here is a daily chart of the index. Volume inched up in Thursday's volatile trade.
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.
