Chart of the Day - Friday, March 13th, 2020

Today’s Chart of the Day was shared in a note titled “Signs of a Washout” by the team at  LPL Financial Research. It’s a chart of the S&P 500 index over the past decade. The indicator in yellow shows the percentage of stocks within the S&P 500 that are trading above their respective 200-day moving averages. Over the past two weeks, the S&P 500 experienced one of the sharpest declines in the history of the index. In just 16 trading days, the index crashed over 27%. Just yesterday, the index dropped nearly 10%, marking its worst day since the Black Monday Crash of 1987. In the aftermath of all this carnage, less than 6% of stocks in the S&P 500 remain above their 200-day moving average. Anything less than 20% is considered extreme for this indicator. Senior Market Strategist Ryan Detrick sums it up perfectly here; “These are truly frightening times. However, it is important to remember that the signs of panic we are seeing are typically found at or near major market lows.” For more on this, check out the full note here.