The stock market has been crazy lately -- even though in reality, it's been boring
A bit of insanity is needed to cover the stock market daily, given how thousands of things happen at once, which are then analyzed and speculated about in real time. This has been especially true the last few days, with Greece, China, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) suspension conspiring against us -- and fueling fear, as evidenced by the spiking CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) -- today.
Of course, we've had the situation in Greece, which has been strung out considerably and could apparently implode next week. A lot has happened, and at the same time, absolutely nothing has happened.
And then there's China, which has been hit hard over the past month. The negativity in Chinese markets has spread to the U.S., where stocks are trading off in a big way.
And now the NYSE just resumed trading after being halted more than three hours. People screamed CONSPIRACY! CYBERATTACK! DONALD TRUMP! But apparently it was just a "glitch" of some sort. I think the biggest takeaway has been that whenever something goes wrong, and technology is involved, all you have to say is "It was a glitch."
The whole thing made for a fun time on Finance Twitter, where jokes were not in short supply. It also led to some not-so-urgent breaking news stories.
Yes, a tough day indeed. And just to make things that much more interesting, this "glitch" came on the same day that United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) had a glitch of its own that suspended flights across the board. Not only that, but The Wall Street Journal's website went down around the same time the NYSE quit trading. Everyone thought these things were connected -- and just in case they were, someone briefed the president.
Then there's the VIX, which
has exploded 19.8% today to hit 19.28. What may be most entertaining of all, though, is that through all of this, the
S&P 500 Index (SPX) has actually broken the
most boring record of all time -- literally.