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

U.S. stocks settled higher on Friday, with the Dow Jones index recording sharp gains during the session as crude oil retreated on hopes for an Iran-brokered reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.  

Washington and Beijing extended their trade truce without announcing new tariffs.

Major indices also recorded gains last week, with the Dow adding 0.3% and the S&P 500 adding 1.2%. The Nasdaq also rose 2% during the period.

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) gained over 3% on Friday after Anthropic committed to an $11.6 billion, seven-year cloud-infrastructure deal, though shares pared part of the gain as investors weighed the roughly $5.5 billion in capital expenditures Akamai will front ahead of that revenue.

On the economic data front, U.S. durable goods orders came in largely flat month-over-month at $338.6 billion in August, following two straight monthly gains and versus market estimates of a 0.4% decline. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index rose to 48.1 in September from a preliminary level of 47.8.

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

The Dow Jones closed higher by around 479 points to 51,828.62 on Friday. The S&P 500 gained 0.51% to 7,743.41, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.48% at 27,068.72 during Friday’s session.

Investors are awaiting earnings results from Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:JEF), Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE:MTN) and IDT Corp. (NYSE:IDT) today.

What is CNN Business Fear & Greed Index?

At a current reading of 37, the index remained in the “Fear” zone on Friday, versus a prior reading of 36.

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 equally weighted indicators. The index ranges from 0 to 100, where 0 represents maximum fear and 100 signals maximum greediness.

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