Wall Street reverses after early rally; volatility spikes

Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 22:30 UTC+01:00 (+0100), United States, New York

News category : Market Structure and Financial Stability Events

Equity markets staged a marked reversal on November 20: an early rally (partly fuelled by corporate beats) gave way to profit-taking as mixed labor data and risk-off flows weighed on sentiment. The Nasdaq, which had been buoyed by AI-related strength, posted steep losses by the close while the VIX jumped to multi-month highs as traders bought protection. Market-structure desks pointed to concentrated long exposures in large tech names and event-driven flows that amplified the move. Short-term futures and options repriced rate-cut probabilities, and sector rotation favoured defensive and rate-sensitive names. While not a fundamental shock in itself, the swing highlighted elevated sensitivity of risk assets to sequential corporate, macro and liquidity signals.

Overall market impact

Light bearish market impact - strength score : 58/100

Detailed breakdown of market impact over instruments, sectors, and asset classes

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Impacted instruments :

S&P 500

Nasdaq Composite

VIX (volatility index)

Options market (puts/calls skew)

Short-dated futures

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