The major European indexes closed the day with modest losses, and once again, the US copied the direction ... but doubled the decline. The S&P popped a the open, gave up most of the gains, but gradually drifted higher, until the FOMC press release. Apparently Chairman Bernanke isn't donning a Santa costume. The index sold off for a closing loss of 0.87%. At least that was off the intraday loss of 1.38%. The index is in the red year-to-date, down 2.54%, which is 10.11% below the April 29th interim high. The 50-day moving average appeared to provide support.
Dear Santa, we're waiting for that rally! We only have 12 trading days left in 2011.
From an intermediate perspective, the index is 81.2% above the March 2009 closing low and 21.7% 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.