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The S&P 500 is down less than 2 per cent from its record high close, but the slight reversal nonetheless adds some urgency to a key issue that has been hanging over the market: Where the heck is the correction?

The U.S. benchmark index last suffered a peak-to-trough decline of 10 per cent or more in 2011, when it fell 19 per cent between April and October. It has been 31 months of relatively smooth sailing since then, which is well above the historical average of 18 months between corrections.

The year began with a number of strategists preparing investors for the inevitability of a setback sometime in 2014. Stocks no longer looked cheap based on trailing earnings; the bull market no longer looked young now that it was approaching its fifth anniversary in March; and the gains in the S&P 500 had already rallied a remarkable 173 per cent from the low in 2009.

The trouble is, corrections need themes, and there isn't a clear contender right now. The European sovereign-debt crisis served the role last time around, with an assist from Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

Today, the landscape is far more splintered. The showdown with Russia over its incursions into Ukraine rattled markets earlier this month, but investors have since come to the conclusion that Russia's economic ties to the rest of the world simply aren't big enough to warrant any widespread fear.

The shifting policy stance of the U.S. Federal Reserve has also shaken markets over the past 10 months – first as then-chair Ben Bernanke floated the idea of tapering the central bank's monthly bond-buying program; then as new-chair Janet Yellen has suggested that rate hikes could begin six months after the bond-buying program winds down.

Each time, though, stock market declines have been followed by rallies, as investors see upbeat economic news more than offsetting the looming end of Fed stimulus.

China is also a simmering worry. A preliminary reading on the country's manufacturing activity in March fell deeper into contraction territory, missing economists' expectations and raising additional concerns about China's ability to meet its economic growth targets.

But back to the U.S. stock market: the S&P 500 was down more than 11 points in afternoon trading, following an 18-point reversal on Friday, after touching a record intraday high.

The overall stock market damage isn't particularly noteworthy, but some of the details are. For one, the losses are widespread: European stocks fell 1.4 per cent on Monday. For another, there isn't a lot of wiggle-room between the S&P 500 and its 50-day moving average; over the past several years, dips below the moving average have led to more serious declines.

And yet another, investors have a preference for safety: They have driven up economically defensive areas of the equity market, such as telecoms, utilities and consumer staples, while shying away from some of the more sensitive areas, such as tech, financials and consumer discretionary. They have also moved into government bonds, where the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond has declined to 2.74 per cent from 2.79 per cent two weeks ago.

The S&P 500 is nowhere near correction territory, of course, and the current turbulence could prove to be nothing more than another jittery blip. But it's never too early to worry that something bigger is developing.

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