OFR Financial Stress Index

## What this measures

Stress in global financial markets, built from 33 daily variables: credit spreads, equity valuations, funding markets, flows into safe assets, and implied volatility, across the US, other advanced economies and emerging markets.

## Why it matters

It is the broadest public-domain read of market stress with daily history back to 2000. When it rises, financing gets harder and more expensive for everyone at once.

## How to read it

0 is average stress. Positive readings are above-average stress; negative readings are calmer than average. It peaked near 29 in late 2008 and near 10 in March 2020.

## What it does not say

It reads markets, not the real economy. Markets can be calm while households and policy are not.

## Source

Office of Financial Research, US Department of the Treasury (financialresearch.gov). A US government work, public domain.