China sneezes, Wall Street catches a cold

Yesterday China announced measures to curb rampant speculation in the Chinese stockmarket, which promptly fell 10%, the largest fall in a decade.

Then the Dow fell over 500 points at one point (above), its heaviest fall since 2001.

A better measure of the panic on Wall Street is the volatility index, called the VIX. This is a good indicator of the amount of complacency in the market. The higher the value, the more nervous the market. Last night it went into orbit (below).