The CBOE Volatility Index fell back below the 14 level yesterday as equity indexes regained some of the ground lost in the steep selloff of the previous session.
The S&P 500 gained 22.21 points, or 1.43 percent, to close at its session high of 1547.57. It appears that the last week's range will now provide resistance and support, at 1597 and 1552 respectively.
The Nasdaq 100 had the same percentage gain as it picked up almost 41 points to close at 2838.41, also its high of the day. It too will have a range defined by the action of the last week. Resistance is at 2864 and support at 2800.
The Russell 2000 gained 16.12 points, or 1.78 percent, to close at 923.3. The small-cap index gained back just above half of Monday's losses. Resistance is at 950 and support at 905.
The VIX was down 3.31 points, or 19.17 percent, to 13.96. That was essentially the low of the day and below the 10-day actual volatility of the SPX, which is now 17.6 percent.
The VIX futures followed the spot volatility index lower. It was the last day of trading for the April futures, which lost 2.75 points to close at 13.95 before this morning's settlement. The May futures were down 1.50 points to 14.70. This left the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Note (:VXX) down 3.62 percent to 19.09.
More than 1.1 million VIX options traded on the day, led by 815,000 calls. The action was clearly driven by selling, as the VVIX Index, which measures the implied volatility of the VIX options, was down 15.7 percent to 88.19.
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