The six-day rally in the S&P 500, the longest since early September, came to a halt with a modest 0.22% decline at the close. Today's trading took place within the second narrowest intraday range of the year, a mere 0.31% -- slightly wider than the 0.29% on March 5th. The popular financial press blames today's loss on some pre-open earnings disappointments and a surprisingly weak New Home Sales report (see the interesting analysis of the latter by New Deal Democrat). Even more surprising was the market's indifference to the bad numbers. Today's market mentality was probably more focused expectations of Apple's quarterly earnings after the close, which has triggered a surge in futures as I type this.
The yield on the 10-year note finished at 2.70%, down 3 bps from yesterday's close and 10 bps off the 2014 low of 2.60%.
Here is a snapshot of the past five sessions.
Here is a daily chart of the SPY ETF. The sideline mentality of traders is evident in the extremely week volume.
The S&P 500 is now up 1.46% for 2014 and 0.82% off its April 2nd record close.
Here is a longer perspective, starting with the all-time high prior to the Great Recession.
For a better sense of how these declines figure into a larger historical context, here's a long-term view of secular bull and bear markets in the S&P Composite since 1871.