Whippy session
What a weird day. Maybe it's the Tesla effect, year-end machinations, or just general chicanery, but there were a lot of odd prints and major whipsaws across markets on Monday. Among the most severe was the VIX "fear gauge" which spiked more than 40% intraday then lost more than 20% into the close. There have only been 4 other days with this much of a reversal (1992-10-05, 1997-10-28, 2015-08-24, and 2017-06-29), after each of which the S&P rallied at least 2% during the next month, for what it's worth. There were 12 times it jumped more than 30% then lost more than 15% by the close, after which the S&P gained 9 times during the next month. So it looks like at least a mild positive, but we'd hesitate to read too much into Monday's big whipsaws.
