Nasdaq Jumps Over 200 Points, Investor Fear Increases Slightly, But Fear & Greed Index Remains In 'Fear' Zone

The CNN Money Fear and Greed index some decline in market sentiment, while the index remained in the “Fear” zone on Friday.

U.S. stocks settled higher on Friday, with the Nasdaq Composite jumping more than 1% during the session. Major indices also recorded gains last week, with the S&P 500 adding 4.6% and the Nasdaq jumping 6.7%. The Dow also notched a weekly gain of 2.5%.

Alphabet Inc GOOG shares gained 1.5% after the company reported better-than-expected results for the first quarter. Tesla Inc TSLA shares climbed 9.8%, while NVIDIA Corp NVDA added 4.3% on Friday.

Phillips 66 PSX reported a wider-than-expected loss for the first quarter on Friday.

President Donald Trump claimed to have held a phone call with President Xi Jinping, yet Chinese officials denied that any talks had taken place.

On the economic data front, the University of Michigan consumer sentiment was revised higher to a reading of 52.2 in April versus a preliminary reading of 50.8, and compared to March’s reading of 57.

Most sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a negative note, with materials, financials and utilities stocks recording biggest losses on Friday. However, consumer discretionary and information technology stocks bucked the overall market trend, closing the session higher.

The Dow Jones closed higher by around 20 points to 40,113.50 on Friday. The S&P 500 jumped 0.74% to 5,525.21, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.26% at 17,382.94 during Friday's session.

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Investors are awaiting earnings results from Domino’s Pizza, Inc. DPZ, NXP Semiconductors N.V. NXPI and Roper Technologies, Inc. ROP today.

At a current reading of 35.3, the index remained in the “Fear” zone on Friday, versus a prior reading of 36.9.

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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