Friday brought another dose of market jitters as U.S. stocks closed mostly in the red, with the Dow Jones shedding over 310 points even as investors managed to salvage modest weekly gains across the board.
The CNN Money Fear and Greed Index tells the story pretty clearly: fear levels increased further, pushing the reading to 22.2 and keeping the market firmly planted in extreme fear territory. That's worse than the prior reading of 18.1, suggesting investors are getting more nervous, not less.
Winners and Losers in a Mixed Session
Not everything went down, though. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) managed to gain 1.8%, clawing back some ground after a 3.6% tumble in the previous session. Micron Technology Inc. (MU) had an even better day, jumping over 4%.
On the flip side, Spire Inc. (SR) dropped more than 2% following its fourth-quarter earnings report.
The sector picture was mostly grim. Most S&P 500 sectors closed in negative territory, with materials, financials, and communication services taking the hardest hits. But energy and information technology stocks managed to swim against the tide, finishing the session higher.
The Numbers
The Dow Jones closed down around 310 points to 47,147.48 on Friday. The S&P 500 slipped 0.05% to 6,734.11, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.13% to 22,900.59.
Here's the silver lining: despite Friday's weakness, the week ended on a positive note for most indexes. The Nasdaq fell 0.5% for the week, but both the S&P 500 and the Dow managed gains of 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.
What's Next
Investors are looking ahead to earnings reports from Aramark (ARMK), Aecom (ACM), and Helmerich and Payne Inc. (HP).
Understanding the Fear & Greed Index
So what exactly is this Fear & Greed Index measuring? It's basically a temperature check on market sentiment, built on the idea that fear pushes stock prices down while greed pushes them up. The index crunches seven equal-weighted indicators into a single number ranging from 0 to 100, where 0 means everyone's terrified and 100 means everyone's wildly optimistic. At 22.2, we're definitely closer to the terrified end of the spectrum.
