TURNAROUND TUESDAY: Stocks close up 2% after wild trading session

After opening sharply lower and then spending much of the afternoon unchanged, U.S. stocks were ripped higher into the final hour of trading.

The Dow closed up 567 points, or 2.3%, the S&P 500 closed up 46 points, or 1.7%, and the Nasdaq closed up 148 points, or 2.1%.

Seconds after the opening bell on Tuesday, the Dow was down about 530 points, or 2.3%, the S&P 500 was down 49 points, or 1.8%, and the Nasdaq was down 137 points, or 2%. Within minutes, however, stocks rallied back sharply with the Dow rising as many as 300 points before moving back into the red later in the morning.

At the open and in pre-market trading, U.S. stocks were taking their lead from markets in Asia and Europe where markets sold off hard after Monday’s historic decline in the Dow.

Overnight, markets in Japan and Australia each lost more than 3% with the Nikkei in Japan falling 5%. Meanwhile, stocks in Europe were lower across the board with the Euro Stoxx 50 closing down almost 3%, the Dax in Germany falling almost 4%, the CAC in Paris down over 2%, and London’s FTSE 100 off 6%.

On Monday, the Dow lost 1,175 points, the largest point decline in the index’s history and good for a 4.6% loss. The S&P 500 lost 4.1%, or 113 points, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 3.8%, or 273 points.

These losses followed a sharp decline into the weekend on Friday, with investors pointing to a number of factors as the source of this move lower in markets.

In the wake of Monday’s sell-off, many in markets were pointing to the massive surge in the VIX, an index which tracks market volatility, and the implosion of an ETN, or exchange-traded note, which seeks to expose investors to the inverse of the VIX.

Monday saw a record-setting decline for the stock market, and early indications on Tuesday are that markets are in for another ugly day.
Monday saw a record-setting decline for the stock market, and early indications on Tuesday are that markets are in for another ugly day.

Early Tuesday morning the VIX was trading above 50 for the first time since August 2015, when markets sold off on concerns related to the Chinese economy. Early this year the VIX was below 10. Near 3:00 p.m. ET the VIX was trading near 30.

On Tuesday, Credit Suisse, which sponsors the XIV ETF that tracks the inverse of the VIX, said it would redeem the note after an 80% decline after hours on Monday. XIV holders will get a cash payout on February 21 as a result of this action, and this redemption will likely trigger massive losses after the XIV gained over 180% in 2017 and became a popular way to bet against volatility, which hit historic lows in 2017.

Outside of this more esoteric market-plumbing issue rattling investors, starting last week and continuing into Monday the rise in Treasury yields was popularly seen as the proximate cause of stress in the stock market.