The S&P 500 traversed a nine point range in morning trading and slowly rallied the rest of the day to close with a modest gain of 0.20%. Today's close sets a new 2012 high -- up 7.34% year-to-date and only 1.00% below its interim high at the end of April 2011.
From an intermediate perspective, the S&P 500 is 99.5% above the March 2009 closing low and 13.7% below the nominal all-time high of October 2007.
Below are two charts of the index, with and without the 50 and 200-day moving averages.
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.
For a bit of international flavor, here's a chart series that includes an overlay of the S&P 500, the Dow Crash of 1929 and Great Depression, and the so-called L-shaped "recovery" of the Nikkei 225. I update these weekly.
These charts are not intended as a forecast but rather as a way to study the current market in relation to historic market cycles.
