Fear & Greed Index Remains In 'Fear' Zone As US Stocks Drop

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index remained in the "fear" zone, at the start of holiday-shortened week.

U.S. markets closed lower on Tuesday as investors digested the recent data on services sector. The ISM services index climbed to 56.9 in August from previous reading of 56.7, while the S&P Global services PMI slipped to 43.7 in August compared to a preliminary level of 44.1.

Concerns over the ongoing energy crisis in Europe and Covid-19 lockdowns in China also impacted the overall market sentiment on Tuesday.

Investors are awaiting the Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech on Thursday, to look out for some cues related to interest rates.

The Dow fell 0.55% to close at 31,145.30 on Tuesday. The S&P 500 fell 0.41% to 3,908.19, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.74% to settle at 11,544.91 in the previous session, amid a decline in stocks, including Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

At a current reading of 41.0, the index remained in the "fear" zone, unchanged from the previous reading.

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.