LIVE MARKETS- Individual investor bulls retreat, bears gain ground - AAII

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INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR BULLS RETREAT, BEARS GAIN GROUND - AAII

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

AAII reported that bullish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, lost 6.7 percentage points to 37.4%. Bullish sentiment is below its historical average of 37.5% for the fourth time in seven weeks.

Bearish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, added 1.6 percentage points to 34.8%. Bearish sentiment is above its historical average of 31.0% for the 46th time in 48 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, gained 5.1 percentage points to 27.8%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 75th time in 77 weeks.

With these changes, the bull-bear spread declined 8.3 percentage points to 2.6% from 10.9% last week. The bull-bear spread is below its historical average of 6.5% for the 40th time in 47 weeks.

(Terence Gabriel)

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