The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is up 9.16 to 64.44 and has retraced about 38 percent of the losses sustained from November 20 to November 26. Risk perceptions are higher as market breadth turned negative once again and only 6 components of the S&P 500 find themselves above water late Monday. The S&P 500 Index has given up about 38 percent of its gains seen from November 20 to November 28 and is sitting near support at 840. Not much hedging activity is being seen, however. 204,000 SPX puts and 161,000 calls have traded so far today. Another 21,000 puts and 25,000 calls have traded on the VIX itself.