Market Jitters

In US dollar terms, the MSCI All Country World Index is presently down less than 1% year-to-date, and the SP&P 500 Index is down 3.3%. These market moves are mild relative to the increase in geopolitical tensions that sharply escalated with the joint Israeli-US strikes on Iran. Underneath the market’s hood however are much sharper moves, the CBOE Volatility Index spiked to a high of 31 last month compared to the start of the year at 15. In an effort to stay on the right side of the market, investors are trading more this year. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, turnover of the S&P 500 tracking ETF (SPY) has been more than USD 60 billion during 29 separate days this year alone, compared to 28 such days in all of 2025.

Source: Bloomberg, April 2026