Investor Fear Increases After Fed Rate Hike

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index showed another rise in the fear level among U.S. investors as stocks settled lower in volatile trading on Wednesday after the Fed increased rates by 75 basis points.

The Fed also indicated that it sees rates rising till the next year. Big technology stocks including Apple AAPL, Amazon AMZN and Meta Platforms META all recorded losses on Wednesday.

The Dow dropped 1.70% to close at 30,183.78 on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 1.71% to 3,789.93, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.79% to settle at 11,220.19 in the previous session.

Investors are now awaiting earnings results from Accenture plc ACN, FedEx Corporation FDX and Costco Wholesale Corporation COST, scheduled for release today.

At a current reading of 31.0, the index remained in the "fear" zone, following a previous reading of 34.0.

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.