Today was better than yesterday for the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index, which finished better than it looked for most of the trading day. The index closed down 28 points, or 0.81%, but was down more than 2% for most of morning trading. A late-day rally actually had the index of the 505 biggest U.S. stocks back to breakeven with 20 minutes remaining in the session, but then turned lower, finishing the week down 2.3%.
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Despite closing down a relatively modest amount today, the past two trading sessions have marked a return to volatility for stocks after a relatively calm couple of months. Today's close makes it easy to miss the sharp open lower, the swing higher, and then the sharp move back down to close the day. It was a choppy session that wasn't clearly headed one direction or the other.