LIVE MARKETS-Can any appearance of calm be trusted?

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CAN ANY APPEARANCE OF CALM BE TRUSTED?

Wall Street was making an on-again off again timid attempt at a comeback on Wednesday morning but if prior sessions are anything to go by, investors should keep their seat belts on.

On Tuesday, as U.S. officials said 70 countries were looking to negotiate on tariffs, traders placed bets on the idea that the White House would wait to see how talks would proceed rather than stick to their midnight deadline. But at some point in the afternoon investors realized that their optimism was misplaced so they ran for the exits.

This was after Monday's massive intraday swing, which was the 19th largest in more than 50 years and the third biggest in the last 15. This was because investors were daring to hope for some softening of the U.S. administration's position on tariffs.

And all of this is against the backdrop of recent corrections for all three of Wall Street's major averages, a bear market confirmation last week for the Nasdaq composite .IXIC, and bear market threats from the S&P 500.

The S&P 500 lost a staggering $9.83 trillion in market value from its record close on Feb. 19 through Tuesday's close. While the S&P lost a record $5.8 trillion in market cap in the last 4 days, it has to be noted for perspective, that the index market cap didn't reach $1 trillion until 1996, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

With all this happening it should also be noted that the CBOE Market Volatility Index .VIX has been making its own gyrations, and while it has pared recent gains, it's currently hovering around 51 points, which is elevated by any standards.

(Sinéad Carew, Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Terence Gabriel)

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FOR WEDNESDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:

MORTGAGE SEE-SAW: RATE DROP LAUNCHES DEMAND TO HIGHEST SINCE SEPTEMBER - CLICK HERE

THE BEAR CAN WAIT: WALL STREET STARTS GREEN AS BARGAIN SHOPPERS EMERGE - CLICK HERE

AMID ELEVATED VOLATILITY, BENCHMARK TREASURY YIELD VAULTS - CLICK HERE

GERMAN BUNDS THE ULTIMATE SAFE HAVEN - CLICK HERE

LOOKING FOR TARIFF BUSTERS? - CLICK HERE

DOLLAR, TREASURIES AND S&P 500 - SOME NUMBERS - CLICK HERE

LESS PANICKED THAN EARLIER, BUT THAT'S A LOW BAR - CLICK HERE

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: SHARE SELLOFF RESUMES, TREASURIES IN FOCUS - CLICK HERE

MORNING BID: MARKETS COWER AS 104% TARIFFS ON CHINA BEGIN - CLICK HERE