a measure of implied volatility on wall street on friday touched the highest level since late january as the sp 500 index spx headed toward its second consecutive weekly loss the cboe volatility index vix jumped by about 24 friday trading around 346 which would mark the highest level for the index since jan 27 according to factset data the index also known as the vix for its ticker symbol has become well known as wall streets fear index since it was created in the early 1990s the vix itself which uses sp 500 options to measure trader expectations for volatility over the coming 30day period tends to rise as stocks fall and is often therefore referred to as a guide to the level of investor fear it had been trading below its historic average of around 195 until concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes covid19 emerged last week this friday the vix was headed higher in the culimination of a weeklong selloff in equities as investors reassessed a weakerthanexpected november jobs report as unlikely to stay the hand of a federal reserve that seems intent on tamping down inflation meanwhile the nasdaq composite index comp  off 27 was seeing the most significant selling pressure among the main three stock benchmarks bringing the index down more than 6 from its nov 19 record peak