Inflation is the reason the Fed can't step in to help. The Fed's preferred gauge hit 3.1% year-over-year in January 2026 and is expected to hover near 2.9% through December—well above the 2% target.
The Fear & Greed Index compresses volatility, trading volume, social media sentiment, Bitcoin dominance, and Google Trends into a single number between 0 and 100. Below 25 means extreme fear, 26 to 49 is fear, 50 to 74 is greed, and above 75 is extreme greed. Crypto markets typically spend only 15% to 20% of their time below 25, so 34 days there means the market sentiment has been in extreme fear for a long period.