Wall Street saw the biggest stock swings in two months yesterday as oil volatility dragged the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index further from the record it reached less than two weeks ago.
The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent in the first 30 minutes of trading then sank 1 percent, tracing a 36-point arc that was the biggest for any day since mid-October, when the index was ending its worst retreat in 2014. Equities followed fluctuations in crude as West Texas Intermediate reversed an early rally and plummeted 3.1 percent.
VIX Swings
Volatility is back as oil’s drop below $56 a barrel raises concern over the strength of the global economy. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, a measure of trader anxiety that has spent most of the year hovering about 25 percent below its historical average, jumped 78 percent last week, the most in four years.
“The VIX has been pretty dormant up till the last couple months,” Chris Willox, a Cobleskill, New York-based director of trading at Fenimore Asset Management Inc., said by phone. His firm manages about $1.9 billion. “Oil is making everybody crazy.”
Today’s top-to-bottom swings in the S&P 500 (SPX) more than doubled this year’s average daily turbulence. Intraday price moves have averaged 16.4 points in 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The index moved 54 points on Oct. 15, the most of the year.
More than $1.8 trillion was erased from global equities last week as oil’s selloff to a five-year low rippled through financial markets. The VIX jumped above its historic mean of 20 for the first time since October and recently traded at 20.42.