No volatility anywhere

No volatility anywhere

August 8, 2017 | Morning Briefing | 0 comments

By this time you’re certainly aware that volatility in the U.S. stock market is near record lows. (It’a actually below record lows when you recalibrate the VIX for revisions to that index.) But the lack of volatility in the bond market may have escaped your attention. It’s even more pronounced than the lows in the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX.)

Intraday volatility picks up: What’s the message (if any)?

Yesterday’s tech stock rally evaporates this morning

June 29, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term, Volatility | 1 comment

Yesterday’s rally in technology stocks and the NASDAQ Composite has disappeared this morning. At 12:30 New York time the NASDAQ was off 1.6%; the Technology Sector Select SPDR (XLK) was down 1.72%; and individual technology stocks were also in the red. Amazon (AMZN), for example, was lower by 1.58%; Nvidia (NVDA) was down 3.57%; Apple (AAPL) had retreated 1.58%; and Facebook had lost 1.16%.

Risk is like an onion

June 15, 2017 | Daily JAM, Videos | 7 comments

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Intraday volatility picks up: What’s the message (if any)?

Tech stocks down again but not a replay of Friday rout

June 12, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing | 0 comments

The market is more anxious today but it doesn’t seem anywhere near panic country. The CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX), was up another 10% today (10.75% as of 1:30 to be exact) on top of a greater than 10% gain on Friday, but that’s a relatively restrained move considering that what is known as the “fear” index has been trading near record lows and that this index can tack on moves of 30% to 40% in a day when investors get really fearful.

Markets rediscover risk–for a day anyway

Markets rediscover risk–for a day anyway

May 17, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term, Volatility | 3 comments

This morning it looks like the combination of turmoil in Washington and some weak economic data have led traders and investors to take money out of risk assets and put money into safe havens. The Standard & Poor’s 500 was off 1.11% and the NASDAQ Composite, which has led this market higher, was down 1.6%. The German DAX Index was off 1.3% and the French CAC 40 Index fell 1.69%.

Intraday volatility picks up: What’s the message (if any)?

Was market action today, May 11, reassuring or scary?

May 11, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term, Volatility | 0 comments

This, Thursday, May 11, was one of those “half full” or “half empty” days. U.S. indexes finished the day largely unchanged. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was off 0.22% to 2394.44. The NASDAQ Composite slid the same 0.22%. And the Russell 2000 small company index was off 0.66%. That the indexes finished the day roughly unchanged would have been a huge surprise to anyone who had only checked in during the morning hours.