Options Trading News

Equity indexes continued to rebound yesterday, driving the CBOE Volatility Index back below the 15 level.

The S&P 500 was up 19.05 points to 1515.99, taking it back to Friday's closing level. The SPX climbed all day and tested resistance at 1520 before giving up a few points into the bell. It is the only one of the three major indexes that finished above its 10-day moving average. Resistance is at 1531, while there is some support at 1485.  

The Nasdaq 100 gained 28.24 points to 2741.26. That was above Friday's close but below Tuesday's open. The NDX gave up about 12 points as the session ended. Resistance is at 2783 and support at 2670.

The Russell 2000 was up 9.87 points to 909.92. The small-cap index is still below Friday's close and its 10-day moving average. Resistance is at 932 and support at 894.

The action pushed the VIX down 2.14 points, or 12.69 percent, to 14.73. The VIX futures followed suit, as the March contracts lost 1.65 points to 15.40 and the April futures gave up 1.30 points to 16.05.

More than 697,000 VIX options traded on the day, taking the No. 2 spot on the highest-volume list. Calls made up 400,000 of that activity.

The VVIX Index, which measures the implied volatility of those options, was down 8.8 percent to 82.29. So volatility expectations are back to where they were before Monday's huge spike in the VIX. There is very little near-term concern in the market, despite facing the looming budget sequestration.