LIVE MARKETS-Individual investor bulls down in the dumps - AAII

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INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR BULLS DOWN IN THE DUMPS - AAII

Individual investor optimism over the short-term outlook for U.S. stocks is at a two-year low in the latest American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment Survey. With this, pessimism dipped, and neutral sentiment rose.

Meanwhile, more than half of investors surveyed said that when it comes to their approach to investing they have recently become either "slightly," or "much more," conservative/cautious.

AAII reported that bullish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, edged lower by 0.1 percentage points to 19.3%. Bullish sentiment is "unusually low" and is below its historical average of 37.5% for the eighth time in 10 weeks.

Bullish sentiment was last lower on March 16, 2023, (19.2%) and was among the lowest 66 readings in the survey’s history.

Bearish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, dipped 3.5 percentage points to 57.1%. Bearish sentiment is "unusually high" and is above its historical average of 31.0% for the 14th time in 16 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, rose 3.6 percentage points to 23.6%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 33rd time in 35 weeks.

With these changes, the bull-bear spread increased about 3.5 percentage points to –37.8% from around -41% last week. The bull-bear spread is below its historical average of 6.5% for the ninth time in 11 weeks.

In this week's special question AAII asked its members how, if at all, they changed their approach to investing recently.

Here is AAII's graphic showing how they responded:

(Terence Gabriel)

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