The Cboe Volatility Index was trading more than 5% lower on Friday, extending a downturn for Wall Street's popular measure of volatility--and sometimes fear--while pushing the index to its lowest level since mid March, even as the stock market was sputtering to end the week. The VIX which usually moves in the opposite direction to equity benchmarks, was most recently down 5.5% at 17.47, below its historic average at around 20 and headed toward a weekly drop of about 19%, according to FactSet data. A close at around these levels would represent the so-call fear gauge's lowest level since March 16. The slide comes in tandem with a drop for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index which were both under pressure as a decline in financial shares weighed on the broader market. The VIX uses bullish and bearish option bets on the S&P 500 to reflect expected volatility over the coming 30 days, and it typically rises as stocks fall. The measure of coming volatility, which had been quiescent through most of 2017, putting in a series of historic nadirs, exploded on Feb. 6, marking the end of the protracted period of quiet that underpinned a steady climb to all-time highs for the S&P 500 and Dow. So far, this week, stocks have enjoyed a bounce, with the Dow set for a weekly gain of 1.9%, the S&P 500 poised for a weekly climb of 2.1% and the Nasdaq Composite Index aiming for a 3% advance over the same period.