August is generally a pretty sleepy month for the stock market, but the current month is taking this to extremes. With two trading days left before the calendar turns over, the S&P 500 has been trading in about as narrow a band as we've ever seen. The S&P crossed the 1400 mark back on August 7, closing that day at 1401.35. In the three-plus weeks since then, the index has never managed to crawl above 1420, or sink lower than 1400.
The biggest single-day gain was 10 points; the biggest single-day loss was 11 points. Maybe the most emblematic day was August 20, when the market opened at 1418.16, and closed at 1418.13. That's a loss of .03 points, or 0.00002 percent of the market's value.
Does it mean anything for the future? Probably not. The lack of movement coincides with August's customary slowdown in volume, as traders and individual investors take their vacations. We'll likely see a lot more movement after Labor Day - although in which direction is anyone's guess.
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