Wall Street's 'fear Gauge' Posts Lowest Intraday Level In Its History

The CBOE Volatility index briefly dropped to its lowest reading ever Wednesday following the conclusion of the Federal Reserve's July policy meeting. The VIX dropped to as low as 8.84, its lowest reading since CBOE started publishing real-time data in the early 1990s, according to FactSet data. The decline for VIX accelerated after an updated policy statement from the Federal Reserve, released Wednesday afternoon, indicated that it would start to unwind its $4.5 trillion asset portfolio "relatively soon" and also signaled that it was focused on stubbornly low inflation. At last check, the VIX was down 1.2% at 9.32. Previously, the VIX had hit a low of 9.04 on Tuesday, and is down nearly 34% year to date.