National Financial Conditions Index
The Chicago Fed's National Financial Conditions Index compresses 105 indicators across money, debt, and equity markets — covering risk, credit, and leverage — into one weekly number. It is built to average zero with a standard deviation of one, so a reading is directly comparable across decades of financial history.
Latest reading
As of May 29, 2026, Fin. Conditions (NFCI) stands at -0.49 — up from -0.51 the prior reading. Zero is average: positive means tighter-than-normal conditions, negative means looser. Values above +1 signal real stress, while readings well below zero reflect easy credit. The trend is as important as the level — conditions tightening quickly are a warning even near zero, because tight financial conditions tend to lead economic slowdowns. Series history runs from 1993 to present.
NFCI
Next release: Jun 10, 2026
Full history
How to read it
Zero is average: positive means tighter-than-normal conditions, negative means looser. Values above +1 signal real stress, while readings well below zero reflect easy credit. The trend is as important as the level — conditions tightening quickly are a warning even near zero, because tight financial conditions tend to lead economic slowdowns.
Methodology & data
Fin. Conditions is sourced from Chicago Fed via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (Chicago Fed via FRED (NFCI), weekly). We pull the complete history, chart it on a weekly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date, last updated 2026-06-09. See our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
- Category
- Financial Conditions
- Frequency
- Weekly
- Source
- Chicago Fed
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Frequently asked questions
What is the National Financial Conditions Index?
The Chicago Fed's National Financial Conditions Index compresses 105 indicators across money, debt, and equity markets — covering risk, credit, and leverage — into one weekly number. It is built to average zero with a standard deviation of one, so a reading is directly comparable across decades of financial history.
How do you read Fin. Conditions?
Zero is average: positive means tighter-than-normal conditions, negative means looser. Values above +1 signal real stress, while readings well below zero reflect easy credit. The trend is as important as the level — conditions tightening quickly are a warning even near zero, because tight financial conditions tend to lead economic slowdowns.
Where does the Fin. Conditions data come from?
Chicago Fed via FRED (NFCI), weekly. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/financial-conditions.csv.
How often is Fin. Conditions updated?
Fin. Conditions is a weekly series from Chicago Fed, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.