With no US economic news to influence the markets, the S&P 500 opened fractionally lower and sold off to its mid-morning -0.59% intraday low. The rest of the day was a slow recovery to within 0.01% of breaking even five minutes before final bell. But the afternoon recovery ran out of steam, and the index posted a -0.05% loss for the day. The 500 essentially duplicated the EURO STOXX 50, which posted a similar -0.08% at its close. In contrast, two headline Asia-Pacific indexes fared much worse: -1.01% for Japan's Nikkei 225 and -2.86% for China's Shanghai Composite.
The yield on the 10-year note closed at 2.79%, down 1 bp from Friday's close. The interim high was 3.04% at the end of 2013.
Here is a 5-minute snapshot of today's action with a bit of Friday afternoon for context.
The volume for today's trade was the lightest since January 3rd.
The S&P 500 is now up 1.56% for 2014.
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.