Fear & Greed Index Moves To 'Neutral' Zone As S&P 500 Hits Record High After Friday Jobs Data

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index showed an improvement in the overall market sentiment, with the index moving to the “Neutral” zone on Friday.

U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday following the release of jobs data, with the S&P 500 surging to a fresh high during the session.

All three major indices closed higher last week, with the Nasdaq Composite jumping 3.5%, and the S&P 500 adding around 2% during the period. The Dow, meanwhile, added around 0.7% last week.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 206,000 last month, slowing down by 12,000 from May, but above economist expectations of 189,000, with predictions ranging from 150,000 to 237,000. The unemployment rate ticked slightly higher from 4% to 4.1% against expectations of an unchanged reading. Average hourly earnings advanced by 0.3% on a month-on-month basis, decelerating from May’s 0.4%, in line with expectations.

NIO Inc. NIO shares fell over 5% on Friday after the company disclosed that Steven Wei Feng has resigned as the Chief Financial Officer for personal and family reasons, effective July 5. NVIDIA Corporation NVDA shares declined around 1.9% after New Street Research downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral.

Most sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a positive note, with communication services, consumer staples and consumer discretionary stocks recording the biggest gains on Friday. However, energy and industrial stocks bucked the overall market trend, closing the session lower.

The Dow Jones closed higher by around 68 points to 39,375.87 on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.54% at 5,567.19, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.9088% at 18,352.76 during Friday's session.

Investors are awaiting earnings results from The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. GBX today.

What is CNN Business Fear & Greed Index?

At a current reading of 53.9, the index moved to the “Neutral” zone on Friday, versus a prior reading of 44.3.

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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