Wild Two Weeks

Yesterday, the CBOE Volatility Index [VIX  70.33    2.72  (+4.02%)   ] spiked to a record high, crossing 80 for the first time intraday.

The Dow Industrials has shown some significant moves each day over the past two weeks. In fact, yesterday the Dow [.DJIA  8852.22    -127.04  (-1.41%)   ] was up 10% from its session low to session high.

Take a look at the impressive recent swings for the Dow:

Dow's trading range

• Today: 332 points (as of mid day)
• Yesterday: 816 points
• Wednesday: 779 points
• Tuesday: 709 points
• Monday: 966 points
• Last Friday: 1,019 points
• Last Thursday: 869 points
• Last Wednesday: 433 points
• Last Tuesday: 687 points
• Last Monday: 797 points

Put all those swings together, and over the past 10 trading sessions, the Dow has moved over 7,400 points – nearly 85% of its ~9,000 level.

Leading the Dow up today are IBM [IBM  90.78    -0.74  (-0.81%)   ] , Merck [MRK  28.50    0.31  (+1.1%)   ] and Chevron [CVX  62.35    -0.75  (-1.19%)   ] , while Caterpillar [CAT  39.32    -3.05  (-7.2%)   ] , United Technologies [UTX  50.71    -2.17  (-4.1%)   ] and JP Morgan Chase [JPM  39.33    -1.16  (-2.86%)   ] are pulling the Dow down