LIVE MARKETS-Individual investors feeling most neutral since February - AAII

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INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS FEELING MOST NEUTRAL SINCE FEBRUARY - AAII

Neutral sentiment among individual investors over the short-term outlook for U.S. stocks increased slightly in the latest American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment Survey. With this, both optimism and pessimism slipped.

Meanwhile, more than half of investors surveyed described the current state of the economy as "mixed."

AAII reported that neutral sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, added 0.7 percentage points to 25.9% (highest since a 30.4% reading on February 20, 2025, which was one trading day after the S&P 500 index .SPX hit its record highs). Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 46th time in 48 weeks.

Bullish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, declined 0.2 percentage points to 32.7%. Bullish sentiment is below its historical average of 37.5% for the 17th time in 18 weeks and is above 30% for only the ninth time this year.

Bearish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, dipped 0.4 percentage points to 41.4%. Bearish sentiment is unusually high and is above its historical average of 31.0% for the 27th time in 29 weeks.

With these changes, the bull-bear spread edged higher by 0.2 percentage points to –8.8% from -9.0% last week. The bull-bear spread is below its historical average of 6.5% for the 22nd time in 24 weeks.

In this week's special question AAII asked its members how they would describe the current state of the economy.

Here is AAII's graphic showing how they responded:

(Terence Gabriel)

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