Published: April 3, 2025 at 8:13 a.m. ET

The Cboe Volatility Index, known commonly as Wall Street’s fear gauge, was jumping early Thursday, as investor angst over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war pushed stock-index futures sharply lower.

But it’s not so much the fresh lurch higher for the “VIX” that is a concern for Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. Such spikes often signal buying opportunities for stocks, he observed.

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