Fear & Greed Index Moves To 'Fear' Zone Ahead Of US Jobs Report

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index fell back to the "fear" zone, with investors awaiting the release of jobs report for the month of August.

U.S. markets closed mostly higher on Thursday after all the three major indices recorded their weakest August performance since 2015. Hawkish expectations from the Federal Reserve resulted in Treasury yields climbing to new highs.

Nonfarm payrolls data will be released today at 8:30 a.m. ET. Analysts expect a gain of 285,000 jobs last month, with unemployment rate expected to remain unchanged at 3.5%.

The Dow rose 0.46% to close at 31,656.42 on Thursday. The S&P 500 gained 0.30% to 3,966.85, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.26% to settle at 11,785.13 in the previous session, despite a rise in stocks, including Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

At a current reading of 44.0, the index fell to the "fear" zone, following a previous reading of 48.0.

What is CNN Business Fear & Greed Index?

The Fear & Greed Index is a measure of the current market sentiment. It is based on the premise that higher fear exerts pressure on stock prices, while higher greed has the opposite effect. The index is calculated based on seven equal-weighted indicators. The index ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents maximum fear and 100 signals maximum greediness.