Key Asia-Pacific indexes built on last week's extreme rally mode. The Nikkei started the week with a 1.64% pop and the Shanghai Composite vaulted to a 3.29% gain. European indexes didn't follow suit. The Euro STOXX 50 ended today's session with a 0.09% loss. Our benchmark S&P 500 spent the day in a narrow trading range, at the 4th percentile of the 196 market days so far in 2015. It ended with a fractional gain of 0.13%.
The bond market was closed today in commemoration of Columbus Day.
Here is a snapshot of past five sessions.
On a daily chart of the SPDR S&P 500 (N:SPY) ETF, which gives a better sense of investor participation, volume was the lowest since Christmas Eve of last year.
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.
