LIVE MARKETS-Individual investor bulls take a pause, bears push forward - AAII

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com

INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR BULLS TAKE A PAUSE, BEARS PUSH FORWARD - AAII

Optimism among individual investors over the short-term outlook for U.S. stocks dipped in the latest American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment Survey. With this, both pessimism and neutral sentiment rose.

Meanwhile, more than half of investors surveyed said that the stock market is performing better than they expected it would at the start of the year.

AAII reported that bullish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, declined 3.6 percentage points to 41.4%. Bullish sentiment is above its historical average of 37.5% for the second time in seven weeks.

Bearish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, gained 2.5 percentage points to 35.6%. Bearish sentiment is above its historical average of 31.0% for the 32nd time in 34 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, added 1.1 percentage points to 23.0%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 51st time in 53 weeks.

With these changes, the bull-bear spread declined 6.2 percentage points to +5.7% from +11.9% last week. The bull-bear spread is below its historical average of 6.5% for the 22nd time in 23 weeks:

In this week's special question AAII asked its members how the stock market’s year-to-date return compares to their expectations at the start of 2025.

Here is AAII's graphic showing how they responded:

(Terence Gabriel)

*****

EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:

TRAVEL AND TOURISM STOCKS DIP AMID NEW TARIFF ROUND: SOURING SENTIMENT OR SUMMER VOLATILITY? CLICK HERE

US STOCKS DIP AFTER LATEST TRUMP TARIFF VOLLEY CLICK HERE

LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING: SMALL CAPS SUDDENLY PACK A PUNCH CLICK HERE

TOO COMPLACENT... CLICK HERE

"DISAPPOINTING" BRITISH GDP KEEPS AUGUST BOE RATE CUT ALIVE CLICK HERE

HSBC SEE AN ODD, AND ENTICING THING IN ASIAN EXPORT DATA CLICK HERE

EUROPEAN STOCKS FLOUNDER AS TARIFF WORRIES RESURFACE CLICK HERE

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: FUTURES WOBBLE ON NEW TARIFF THREATS CLICK HERE