NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Cboe Volatility Index .VIX, Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” rose 0.4 points on Friday to finish the week near a more than 4-month closing high logged earlier this week, as U.S. stock indexes wrapped up their worst week since the March sell-off, amid jitters over next week’s U.S. presidential election.
For the week, the options-based volatility index gained 10.5 points to close at 38.02, it’s largest weekly gain since mid June, as investors rushed to load up on defensive options contracts against further stock market losses.
Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; editing by Diane Craft