‘Witching’ Sparks Volume Bursts Following Stock-Market Lull
- Quarterly event and index rebalancing fuel busy trading
- S&P 500 posts the worst decline in more than five weeks
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In a week when even a hawkish Federal Reserve failed to shake the equity-market lull, Friday brought some fireworks.
Stock transactions spiked amid a quarterly event known as triple witching, when options and futures on indexes and equities expire. Almost 15 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, about 40% above the three-month average, while the benchmark slipped 1.3%, the most in more than five weeks.