The chart of the Dow below and even our own STI index on an intra-day basis shows the volatility that I mentioned above.

For the Dow the unexpected decline toward the close was attributed to traders closing their positions on market speculation that China would be reducing its exposure or holdings in EU sovereign debt.  For Singapore, the sudden plunge at the close was linked to OCBC shares.  These wild intra-day swings are not for the faint hearted and are aggravated by the thinner volumes.  Notwithstanding the uncertainty and concerns about problems in the EU, i notice that th VIX has been easing over the last few days despite the index volatility and is now resting at the 35 level.  For me, a drop below 30 is inevitable and would be a good signal for the "faint hearted" to start putting some money back into the market.

For the STI Index, there are newspaper reports today about the sudden plunge in OCBC shares in the pre-close.  The intra-day chart below shows what happened.