Fear Among US Investors Is Increasing, Here's Why

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index showed further increase in the fear level after the U.S. stocks fell in choppy trading session on Thursday.

Shares of Adobe ADBE weighed heavily on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq after the company’s stock dropped more than 16% on Thursday. Adobe reported results for its latest quarter and announced a $20 billion transaction to buy Figma.

Bank stocks, however, provided some support to the overall markets, with shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS and JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM gaining more than 1% each on Thursday.

A mixed batch of economic data was released on Thursday, with retail sales rising 0.3% in August from July and initial jobless claims declining by 5,000 to 213,000 in the week ended September 10th. However, U.S. industrial production fell 0.2% from a month ago in August and Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index dropped to -9.9 in September.

The Dow dropped 0.56% to close at 30,961.82 on Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 1.13% to 3,901.35, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.43% to settle at 11,552.36 in the previous session.

At a current reading of 38.0, the index remained in the "fear" zone, following a previous reading of 42.0.

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.