U.S. Stocks Have Forgotten They’re Supposed to Fluctuate
J.P. Morgan’s famous response to a question about how the U.S. stock market would perform – “It will fluctuate” – might need a qualifier these days. The S&P 500 Index’s volatility for the last 30 trading days dropped below 5 percent on Monday for the first time since October 1968, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and stayed there Tuesday. Lower volatility tends to increase the amount of buying and selling done near the close of trading, according to a report Tuesday by Victor Lin, a strategist at Credit Suisse Group AG.