Why Fear Level Among US Investors Is Decreasing

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index showed further decline in the fear level among US investors as stocks recorded gains for a second straight session.

Concerns over recession and aggressive rate-hikes by major central banks have pushed the Wall Street to their lows of the year recently. However, US markets moved higher this week amid strong start to the earnings season.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS reported better-than-expected Q3 results on Tuesday.

The Dow rose 1.12% to close at 30,523.80 on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.14% to 3,719.98. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.90% to settle at 10,772.40 in the previous session, amid a rise in Apple Inc. AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN shares.

Investors are now awaiting earnings reports from The Procter & Gamble Company PG, International Business Machines Corporation IBM, and Tesla, Inc. TSLA.

At a current reading of 35.0, the index remained in the "fear" zone, following a previous reading of 32.0.

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.