Volatility has been increasing for several months now, but that has mostly been on a day to day basis, not an hour by hour basis.

S&P futures were down as much as 20 points from Thursday’s close in early trading on Friday. That was before the GDP numbers were posted.

When the advanced report of fourth quarter GDP was released at 8:30 ET, futures rallied even though the GDP growth rate came in at 2.6% when it was expected to come in at 3.2%. This is down from 5% in the third quarter.

Futures rallied back as much as 17.25 points off the lows right after the opening bell, but once the stock market opened, futures headed back down and hit new daily lows in late morning. Once again futures rallied back to being only off one point from Thursday’s close in mid-afternoon, but once again selling hit the market shortly thereafter and the lows of the day were hit in the last fifteen minutes of trading. All in all, there were four intra-day swings of 15 points or more.

With the concerns over global economic growth, oil prices and currency volatility, this is not a market for the feint of heart.

Rick Pendergraft
Investment Analyst
HedgeCoVest