S&P Breaks June Lows in the Afternoon and Recovers into Close, Dow at 2022 Low

“Mama said there’ll be days like this, There’ll be days like this Mama said.”- The Shirelles

The Dow and the S&P 500 were down about 5% for the week. The June 16^th lows were breached intraday for the S&P 500. Chances of recession are going up, according to JP Morgan. They are about at a coin flip over the next year and 74% over two years. Also, more market commentators are starting to raise the specter that the Fed may over-tighten. The Fed’s Summary of Economic Projections (SEP), also called the dot plot—but this week, you can call them the dots of doom. All components of the DJIA were negative for the week. The VIX spiked to its highest levels in months and settled just under 30. We ended up closing about 25 points above the June lows for the S&P 500, but the Dow closed at its lowest level in 2022.

There is a character in Greek mythology called Sisyphus. The Gods punished him with the fate of rolling a boulder up a hill for all of eternity, then watching it roll down and starting again. Tasks or professions with a similar quality of being impossible to complete and repetitive are sometimes called Sisyphean tasks. If you haven’t realized it yet, markets and the pursuit of gains through them meet the definition pretty well. It's hot, then it's col...