The S&P 500 hits its -0.14% intraday in the opening seconds. But the 10 AM announcement of disappointing existing home sales and a weaker than forecast reading from the Philly Fed index put the index in modest rally mode. It then trended sideways with a pop to its 0.40% intraday high twenty minutes before the close trimmed closing gain of 0.23%. Today’s advance was the 10th record close of the year.

The official yield on the 10-year note closed at 2.19%, down seven bps from the previous close.

Here is a 15-minute chart of the past five sessions.

Here is a daily chart of the SPY ETF, which gives a better sense of investor participation (or lack thereof). Today’s volume was the second lowest of 2015.

A Perspective on Drawdowns

Here’s a snapshot of selloffs since the 2009 trough.

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For a longer-term perspective, here is a charts base on daily closes since the all-time high prior to the Great Recession.

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Images: Flickr (licence attribution)

About The Author

My original dshort.com website was launched in February 2005 using a domain name based on my real name, Doug Short. I’m a formerly retired first wave boomer with a Ph.D. in English from Duke. Now my website has been acquired byAdvisor Perspectives, where I have been appointed the Vice President of Research.

My first career was a faculty position at North Carolina State University, where I achieved the rank of Full Professor in 1983. During the early ’80s I got hooked on academic uses of microcomputers for research and instruction. In 1983, I co-directed the Sixth International Conference on Computers and the Humanities. An IBM executive who attended the conference made me a job offer I couldn’t refuse.

Thus began my new career as a Higher Education Consultant for IBM — an ambassador for Information Technology to major universities around the country. After 12 years with Big Blue, I grew tired of the constant travel and left for a series of IT management positions in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. I concluded my IT career managing the group responsible for email and research databases at GlaxoSmithKline until my retirement in 2006.

Contrary to what many visitors assume based on my last name, I’m not a bearish short seller. It’s true that some of my content has been a bit pessimistic in recent years. But I believe this is a result of economic realities and not a personal bias. For the record, my efforts to educate others about bear markets date from November 2007, as this Motley Fool article attests.