Investor Sentiment Declines As US Stocks Settle Lower

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index showed some easing in overall market sentiment, but the index remained in the "Greed" zone on Monday.

U.S. stocks closed lower on Monday, after the major averages recorded gains for fourth straight weeks. The S&P 500 has gained 8.5% so far this month, while the Dow is up 6.9% in November.

Some e-commerce stocks, including Shopify Inc. SHOP and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, closed higher on Cyber Monday.

On the economic data front, U.S. new home sales declined by 5.6% to an annualized rate of 679,000 in October, compared to market estimates of 723,000.

Most sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a negative note, with health care and industrials stocks recording the biggest losses on Monday. However, real estate and consumer discretionary stocks bucked the overall market trend, closing the session higher.

The Dow Jones closed lower by around 57 points to 35,333.47 on Monday. The S&P 500 fell 0.20% at 4,550.43, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.07% at 14,241.02 during Monday’s session.

Investors are awaiting earnings results from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company HPE, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. CRWD, NetApp, Inc. NTAP and Intuit Inc. INTU today.

At a current reading of 65, the index remained in the "Greed" zone on Monday, versus a prior reading of 66.5.

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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