Investor Sentiment Decreases Slightly Following Target's Warning

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index showed slight easing in the overall market sentiment among US investors after the Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday.

Target Corporation TGT issued weak holiday-sales forecast, sending its shares down over 13% on Wednesday. Shares of other retailers, including, Macy's, Inc. M, Nordstrom, Inc. JWN, and The Gap, Inc. GPS also recorded losses during the previous session.

Wall Street recorded solid gains following consumer prices data released last week, with the S&P 500 index notching its best week since June.

The Dow dropped 0.12% to close at 33,553.83 on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 0.83% to 3,958.79, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.54% to settle at 11,183.66 in the previous session.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA, BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. BJ, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. WSM and Applied Materials, Inc. AMAT are set to report quarterly earnings today.

At a current reading of 66.0, the index remained in the "Greed" zone, compared to a previous reading of 67.0.

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.