Investor Optimism Improves Ahead Of Inflation Data

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index showed an improvement in overall market sentiment among U.S. investors.

U.S. stocks closed mostly higher on Monday ahead to key inflation data on Wednesday. Tech stocks, meanwhile, came under pressure, with shares of Apple Inc. AAPL dropping 1.6% and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL declining 1.8% on Monday.

On Friday, the Labor Department reported the U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in March, just shy of market estimates of 240,000 jobs. U.S. wages increased 4.2% year-over-year, while the unemployment rate fell from 3.6% to 3.5%.

U.S. big banks, including, JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, Wells Fargo & Company WFC and Citigroup Inc. C, will report earnings results on Friday.

The Dow closed higher by around 101 points to 33,586.52 on Monday. The S&P 500 rose 0.10% to 4,109.11, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.03% to settle at 12,084.36 during the session.

Investors are awaiting earnings results from CarMax, Inc. KMX, Albertsons Companies, Inc. ACI and Skillsoft Corp. SKIL today.

At a current reading of 61.0, the index remained in the "Greed" zone, versus a previous reading of 57.0

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.

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