LIVE MARKETS-Individual investor bears bounce back - AAII

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INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR BEARS BOUNCE BACK - AAII

Individual investor pessimism over the short-term outlook for U.S. stocks gained in the latest American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment Survey. With this, optimism pulled back, while neutral sentiment slipped.

Meanwhile, more than half of investors surveyed said "tariffs, the economy, and/or inflation" is having the biggest impact on their outlook for the market.

AAII reported that bearish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, rose 5.1 percentage points to 41.9%. Bearish sentiment is "unusually high" and is above its historical average of 31.0% for the 26th time in 28 weeks.

Bullish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, declined 4.8 percentage points to 32.9%. Bullish sentiment is below its historical average of 37.5% for the 16th time in 17 weeks and is above 30% for only the eighth time this year.

Neutral sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, edged down 0.3 percentage points to 25.2%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 45th time in 47 weeks.

With these changes, the bull-bear spread fell 10 percentage points to -9.0% from +1.0% last week. The bull-bear spread is below its historical average of 6.5% for the 21st time in 23 weeks.

In this week's special question AAII asked its members which factor was having the greatest impact on their six-month outlook for stocks.

Here is AAII's graphic showing how they responded:

(Terence Gabriel)

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