U.S. stock index futures were down about a third of a percent, setting Wall Street for a lower open on Wednesday, an almost 2 percent gain in the previous session failing to calm the nerves following the Dow’s biggest intraday fall on Monday.
All three of Wall Street’s main indexes 1YMc1 ESc1 NQc1 were on course for falls of between 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent, indicated by volatile premarket futures trading.
A wild session on Tuesday saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average swing more than 1,100 points from peak to trough and ended with the benchmark S&P 500 tallying its best day since just before President Donald Trump’s election in 2016.
Traders are bracing for volatility to stay high as they try to figure out if the swings of the past two days are the start of a deeper correction or just a temporary blip in the U.S. market’s nine-year bull run.
The pivotal gauge of S&P 500 volatility, the VIX .VIX, opened at a relatively elevated 31 points and was at 28.80. The VIX on Tuesday hit a more than two-and-a-half year high above 50, after trading, on average, below 20 for months.
via Reuters
