Day two of Fed Chair Yellen's congressional testimony was the market's main focus on Thursday, along with some crazy volatility in oil. The S&P 500 plunged at the open and sank further during Yellen's testimony. But rumors of a potential OPEC production cut shifted the focus and prompted an afternoon rally. The intraday low of -2.11%, ninety minutes before the close, was trimmed to a less wicked -1.23%. The index is now down 10.51% year-to-date and 14.16% off its record close in May of last year ... 38 weeks ago.
The yield on the 10-year note closed at 1.63%, down 8 basis points from the previous close.The intraday low in the 10-year treasury yield index was around 1.57%.
Here is a snapshot of past five sessions.
Here is a daily chart of the index. Volume increased during today's volatile session. Note in the chart above that much of the increase came during the afternoon rally and the selloff during the final minutes.
A Perspective on Drawdowns
Here's a snapshot of selloffs since the 2009 trough.
A Perspective on Volatility
For a sense of the correlation between the closing price and intraday volatility, the chart below overlays the S&P 500 since 2007 with the intraday price range. We've also included a 20-day moving average to help identify trends in volatility.
Here is the same chart with the 50- and 200-day moving averages.