St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index
The St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index distills 18 weekly market series — Treasury yields, credit spreads, the VIX, and more — into a single measure of financial-market stress using principal component analysis. It is constructed so that zero represents average historical conditions, giving a clean, comparable read across time.
Latest reading
As of July 17, 2026, Fin. Stress (STLFSI) stands at -0.70 — up from -0.88 the prior reading. Zero is normal: positive values mean above-average stress, negative values mean unusually calm markets. Above +1 is significant stress and above +2 is severe, crisis-level territory. Between crises the index typically drifts between -1 and +1, and very negative readings can flag complacency rather than safety. Series history runs from 1993 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-07-24 · Open ↓Close ↑
STLFSI
Next release: Jul 29, 2026
Full history
Methodology & data
Fin. Stress is sourced from St. Louis Fed via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (St. Louis Fed via FRED (STLFSI4), 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 2026-07-24. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index?
The St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index distills 18 weekly market series — Treasury yields, credit spreads, the VIX, and more — into a single measure of financial-market stress using principal component analysis. It is constructed so that zero represents average historical conditions, giving a clean, comparable read across time.
How do you read Fin. Stress?
Zero is normal: positive values mean above-average stress, negative values mean unusually calm markets. Above +1 is significant stress and above +2 is severe, crisis-level territory. Between crises the index typically drifts between -1 and +1, and very negative readings can flag complacency rather than safety.
Where does the Fin. Stress data come from?
St. Louis Fed via FRED (STLFSI4), 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-stress.csv.
How often is Fin. Stress updated?
Fin. Stress is a weekly series from St. Louis Fed, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.
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