Wall Street's fear gauge tumbles as traders bid up SpaceX shares

Wall Street’s volatility gauge fell sharply on Monday as stocks rallied after SpaceX’s market debut, easing a pocket of anxiety that had built during this month’s tech selloff. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 3%, the S&P 500 gained about 1.7%, and semiconductor stocks jumped more than 4%, leading the advance.

The move came less than two weeks after the market’s worst day since October 2025, when investors were already questioning how much risk they wanted to carry in richly valued growth shares.

The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, retreated as the broader market pushed back toward recent highs. Monday’s gains did not prove that the SpaceX listing alone drove the drop in volatility or the rebound in tech, but the timing mattered because traders had been watching the offering as a potential strain on liquidity and investor demand.

Instead, the first day of trading was met with enough buying interest to calm at least one near-term concern.

That shift was most visible in the parts of the market that had been under the most pressure. The Nasdaq 100 outpaced the S&P 500 by a wide margin, and chipmakers led again, suggesting investors were not simply rotating into defensive stocks but were willing to add exposure to higher-beta names.

The S&P 500 also moved back toward the record it set earlier this month, reinforcing the sense that the recent pullback had not turned into a broader break in risk appetite.

SpaceX’s debut was closely watched because of its scale and because it arrived after a stretch of more fragile trading in technology shares. Investors had worried that a deal of that size could pull cash away from other stocks or expose limits to demand after a long run-up in speculative corners of the market.

Monday’s session suggested those concerns were not immediately borne out, though it remains too early to draw a larger conclusion from a single trading day.

Retail trading offered another clue about demand. Individual investors who sought SpaceX shares were often allotted only a small fraction of what they requested, with complaints on online forums ranging from tiny allocations to difficult decisions about whether to sell quickly or hold.

One investor who asked for 1,000 shares received 17 and sold soon after trading began, an example of how scarce supply appeared relative to interest at the open.

Small allocations do not say much on their own about the stock’s long-term value, but they do help explain why the debut was read as orderly rather than disruptive. If broad demand had been weak, a blockbuster offering might have added pressure to a market that had already shown signs of strain earlier this month.

Instead, buyers showed up for the new listing while also bidding up the same growth sectors that had recently been hit hardest.

What comes next: The next few sessions will show whether Monday was the start of a steadier recovery in risk appetite or a short-lived relief rally after a high-profile deal cleared the market.

If chipmakers and other large-cap tech shares continue to lead, investors may grow more confident that the earlier selloff was more about positioning and event risk than a deeper deterioration in demand.

If that leadership fades quickly, Monday may be remembered less as a turning point than as evidence that one unusually large offering was absorbed without destabilizing the broader market.

Published at 2026-06-15T20:00:44.775622+00:00 UTC

Related Symbols

• SPY — S&P 500 ETF (ETF)
• QQQ — Nasdaq 100 ETF (ETF)
• SMH — Semiconductor ETF (ETF)
• VTI — Total Stock Market ETF (ETF)
• Selection note: Story is about broad US market risk appetite and volatility easing after the SpaceX IPO, with gains in the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and semiconductors.

References

• CNBC
• Bloomberg
• CNBC