VIX Falls Nearly 9% on Monday as US Stocks Rally
Key Facts
The VIX fell about 8.97% to 23.34 points at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, November 9, according to Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) data, as US stocks posted strong gains during the session. The Associated Press said the S&P 500 rose 2.4% and was on track for a second straight daily gain. It added that the Dow Jones climbed 1,144 points, or 2.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 2.6% at 2:01 p.m. Eastern time. The VIX’s decline came as stocks recovered from the sharp volatility seen the previous week. The index’s level during Monday trading, through the time cited by Cboe, was below Friday’s close but remained elevated compared with levels before that week’s market turmoil.
Oil prices provided additional support for stocks, with Brent crude down 4.7% to $93.73 a barrel on Monday, according to the Associated Press. The price had topped $112 a barrel at the start of the month, making the latest drop an extension of a decline that began before Monday’s session. The agency said the fall in oil helped support stocks broadly. At the same time, the S&P 500 was just 3.4% below the record high it reached the previous month, despite the preceding decline. Gains in the major indexes during the session showed the breadth of the rebound, with the Nasdaq and Dow Jones advancing alongside the S&P 500.
Monday’s move followed a week in which the VIX rose. Cboe said the index gained 6 points for the week to 25%, posting the highest volatility among asset classes on a one-year measure and the second-highest level on a 10-year measure. During Thursday’s session, November 5, the index surged as much as 70% before settling at 27.01 points, up 62.61%, according to Cboe. The index also stood at 28.18 points at the close on November 5, then 25.64 points on November 6, according to EL7 daily data. The VIX closed Friday down 9% at 25.56 points, according to a Cboe commentary published that day. These readings show that Monday’s decline followed a drop in Friday’s session, after which the index had risen again during the previous week.
In explaining Thursday’s move, Cboe said increases in the skew and curvature of put options accounted for about half of the VIX’s rise that day, or 5.5 points of the total 11.5-point increase, amid a surge in hedging demand. Earlier market pressures were not distributed evenly across all sectors: 5 of the 11 S&P sectors ended the week in positive territory. The correlation index rose to 22% on Thursday, while Cboe said its average during instances when the S&P 500 fell 4% in a single day was closer to 70% over the previous twenty years. By contrast, volatility across most asset classes eased after the election, and the MOVE index fell by more than 7 basis points, according to Cboe. Brent also fell below $100 a barrel for the first time in two months, according to its commentary on the week.
Other indicators reflected continued caution during the previous week: the VIX topped 28 points on Thursday, November 5, before closing above 25 points on Friday, according to Reuters. The European volatility index also reached its highest level since May on Friday. The yield premium investors demand to hold US high-yield corporate bonds rose to its highest level since the Liberation Day turmoil in April 2025, according to Reuters. Money market funds recorded inflows of $140 billion in the week ended Wednesday, November 4, the seventh-largest inflow on record. In equities, the Nasdaq 100 rose slightly more than 1% on Friday but ended the week down 5%, according to Reuters.
US jobs data for October, released on November 6, showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 165,000, while the unemployment rate held at 4.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Associated Press said the increase exceeded economists’ expectations of 65,000 jobs. Revisions by the Labor Department added 84,000 jobs to the combined total for August and September. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% in October from September, the largest monthly increase since January, according to the agency. These figures place the jobs report against the market backdrop ahead of the next US inflation data release.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish the October Consumer Price Index on Tuesday, November 10, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The release follows Monday’s session, in which the available VIX reading fell during trading as stocks rose. The Federal Reserve will also hold its next meeting on December 8 and 9, according to the central bank’s calendar, and the meeting will include a Summary of Economic Projections. In its commentary published on November 6, Cboe had also identified the same meeting as an upcoming monetary policy date. Inflation data and the expected decision remain scheduled milestones on the market calendar after a week of elevated stock volatility.