Stock Market Record High Precedes a 1.25% Selloff

By: PhilStockWorld

Courtesy of Doug Short: Friday morning’s much anticipated March employment report delivered no surprises. The S&P 500 rallied at the opening bell and hit its all-time high a minute later. The index traded sideways for the next hour and then began a steady selloff to its -1.35% mid-afternoon low. At the closing bell the index had trimmed its loss to -1.25%, its fourth worst loss of the year, well off the -2.28% on February 3rd. The selling was most pronounced in tech stocks, with the NASDAQ plunging 2.60%, its second worst session in 2014 (the worst was -2.61% on February 3rd).

The yield on the 10-year note finished at 2.74%, down 6 bps from yesterday’s close. The interim high yield was 3.04% at the end of 2013.

Here is a snapshot of the week, which, despite today’s selling, posted a 0.40% gain.

Volume increased on today’s decline but was only 8% above its 50-day moving average.

The S&P 500 is now up 0.91% 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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