Mind the Gap-- or Absence Thereof!

In spite of recent headlines and developments at the ECB, market action has remained fairly subdued, as evidenced by the number of stocks that jump (in a positive or negative direction) at the open of trading.  This particular measure of volatility takes a 65-day running total of gaps up by 2% or more and gaps down 2% or more for each individual stock in the MSCI Europe index (blue line, inverted):



As the number of gaps approaches low levels not seen since 2007, one can't help but notice how poorly the overall index has performed each time the number of gaps has subsequently risen in the past.  Compared to the other regions in the MSCI World Index, however, European stocks are not as extremely docile-- both MSCI North America and MSCI Pacific have reached all-time lows for as far back as we have data: