The pre-open economic news was a mixed bag: New Jobless Claims were worse than expected, but the March Durable Goods Orders came in above forecasts. The S&P 500 jumped at the open and quickly hits its 0.46% intraday high, a follow-up of yesterday's after-market upbeat Apple earnings report. It then sold off to its -0.27% intraday low about 30 minutes later. A quick recovery took it back into a positive trading range for the rest of the session, ultimately closing with a modest 0.17% gain.
The yield on the 10-year note finished at 2.70%, unchanged from yesterday's close and 10 bps off the 2014 low of 2.60%.
Here is a snapshot of the past five sessions.
Volume was close to its 50-day moving average in the index itself, but a daily chart of the SPY ETF shows continued low volume.
The S&P 500 is now up 1.64% for 2014 and 0.65% 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.