Stock Market Negative Close to a Volatile Week

By: PhilStockWorld

Friday morning was loaded with economic news. We learned that Personal Income and Spending were both up 0.3% in February, although my preferred spending metric, Real Disposable Income Per Capita, has essentially been flat for the past seven months. The Core PCE Price index shows inflation at about half what the Fed wants. The March Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index at 80.0 was down from February’s 81.6.

The S&P 500 rallied at the open and hit its 0.95% intraday high about ninety minutes later. The index then gave back most of the advance over the rest of the day before reversing in the final hour to its 0.46% closing gain. For the week the S&P 500 declined 0.48%.

The yield on the 10-year note finished at 2.73%, down two bps from last Friday’s close. The interim high yield was 3.04% at the end of 2013.

Here is a snapshot of the volatile week.

Today’s gain came on diminished volume in advance of Monday’s first-quarter close.

The S&P 500 is now up 0.50% 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.

- Phil

www.philstockworld.com

Philip R. Davis is a founder of Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com), a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders. Mr. Davis is a serial entrepreneur, having founded software company Accu-Title, a real estate title insurance software solution, and is also the President of the Delphi Consulting Corp., an M&A consulting firm that helps large and small companies obtain funding and close deals. He was also the founder of Accu-Search, a property data corporation that was sold to DataTrace in 2004 and Personality Plus, a precursor to eHarmony.com. Phil was a former editor of a UMass/Amherst humor magazine and it shows in his writing -- which is filled with colorful commentary along with very specific ideas on stock option purchases (Phil rarely holds actual stocks). Visit: Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com)

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