Wall Street's VIX Gauge Creeps Higher as Investors Stay Wary of Big Market Moves

New York (Feb 7)  Global markets may have steadied in overnight trading, but investors' benchmark gauge for near-term volatility is creeping higher again Wednesday, suggesting the wild swings seen in recent stock market trading may not have abated after Tuesday's massive rebound for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The Chicago Board of Trade's Volatility Index, better known as the (VIX.X) , was marked 3.37% higher at 30.97 points in global trading hours in Chicago after spiking past the 50 mark for the first time since 2009 in Tuesday's historic session. Those moves followed the biggest one-day rise on record -- a jump of 115% on Monday -- that sent futures prices for the S&P 500 on a wild two-day ride that saw prices swing in range of 4.75%, the most extreme market movements in more than two years.

"The bounce in risk appetite yesterday in major US indices has many sounding the all clear that this was merely an episode made possible by egregiously over-leveraged short volatility market players and the algorithmic/trading robot aggravating thin liquidity," said Saxo Bank strategist John Hardy. "But overnight, the risk bounce in Asia has faltered badly, with the Nikkei weakening into the close and the major Chinese index closing at ugly new local lows. So we may not have seen the worst of this yet."

TheStreet's founder, Jim Cramer, said Tuesday on our RealMoney platform that "these instruments are reckless in their creation and should not be allowed."

TheStreet