The closely watched stock market volatility expectations index surged Thursday, as the sell-off spearheaded by technology shares dragged the main gauge sharply lower. The Volatility Index, known by its ticker symbol "VIX", rose to 33.07 after trading at a more than seven-week high of 32.77. The increase brought the VIX above its 200-day moving average. The VIX is an options-based measure of expected volatility over the next 30 days for the S&P 500 which typically spikes during major stock market selloffs, also tends to fall during long, gradual rallies, but remains high above the long-term average, as stocks push back into record territory in recent weeks.
Stocks were under heavy pressure on Thursday, the technology-led selloff saw USA100 down nearly 5%, while USA500 was down 3.5% and USA30 2.7%.
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EUR/USD treads water just above 1.0400 post-US data
Another sign of the good health of the US economy came in response to firm flash US Manufacturing and Services PMIs, which in turn reinforced further the already strong performance of the US Dollar, relegating EUR/USD to the 1.0400 neighbourhood on Friday.
GBP/USD remains depressed near 1.2520 on stronger Dollar
Poor results from the UK docket kept the British pound on the back foot on Thursday, hovering around the low-1.2500s in a context of generalized weakness in the risk-linked galaxy vs. another outstanding day in the Greenback.
Gold keeps the bid bias unchanged near $2,700
Persistent safe haven demand continues to prop up the march north in Gold prices so far on Friday, hitting new two-week tops past the key $2,700 mark per troy ounce despite extra strength in the Greenback and mixed US yields.
Geopolitics back on the radar
Rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine caused renewed unease in the markets this week. Putin signed an amendment to Russian nuclear doctrine, which allows Russia to use nuclear weapons for retaliating against strikes carried out with conventional weapons.
Eurozone PMI sounds the alarm about growth once more
The composite PMI dropped from 50 to 48.1, once more stressing growth concerns for the eurozone. Hard data has actually come in better than expected recently – so ahead of the December meeting, the ECB has to figure out whether this is the PMI crying wolf or whether it should take this signal seriously. We think it’s the latter.
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