Fear & Greed Index Moves To 'Neutral' Zone As Markets Digest Powell's Speech

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index moved back to the "neutral" zone despite a decline in the US stocks on Monday.

Energy stocks gained around 1.5% on Monday as crude oil prices surged about 4% on prospects of output cuts by the OPEC+.

However, some rebound is expected on the Wall Street today, as US stock futures traded higher, with the Dow futures adding around 150 points this morning.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, at the Jackson Hole symposium, said the country’s economy would need tight monetary policy to bring inflation under control.

The Dow dropped 0.57% to close at 32,098.99 on Monday. The S&P 500 fell 0.67% to 4,030.61, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.02% to settle at 12,017.67 in the previous session amid a drop in technology stocks, including Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN.

Investors are now awaiting earnings results from Big Lots, Inc. BIG, Best Buy Co., Inc. BBY and HP Inc. HPQ.

At a current reading of 54.0, the index moved to the "neutral" zone, following a previous reading of 44.0.

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.