Despite the hyper ramp in the equity market in the afternoon, the VIX remains in the broader up channel, on ALL cycles.
VIX'60min
VIX, daily
VIX, weekly
Summary
So...unless we see VIX break below 21..and more definitively <20, the VIX is still trending UP. The daily and weekly cycles are strong evidence for the general bearish outlook.
If the market drops Thursday, the first main target on VIX is 27. That would probably equate to sp'1280.