•  VIX^® welcomed the inauguration of President Biden with a decline towards its lowest levels since the March 2020 sell-off.

•  Medium-dated U.S. volatility measures remain sharply higher than short-term measures, while the SKEW index continues to imply a high cost for protection against sudden moves to the downside in the S&P 500^®.

•  Elsewhere, implied volatility gauges for European equities have ticked down since our last report, while equivalents for emerging markets, and China in particular, have risen.