LIVE MARKETS-Bulls, bears back down; neutral stock sentiment steps forward - AAII

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BULLS, BEARS BACK DOWN; NEUTRAL STOCK SENTIMENT STEPS FORWARD - AAII

The number of individual investors who see no short-term change in the stock market is on the rise, according to the latest weekly survey from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII).

Bullish sentiment, or the belief that stock prices will increase over the next six months, edged 0.1 percentage point lower to 33.1%, riding below its long-term historical average of 37.5% for the third time in 14 weeks.

Bearish sentiment, or the conviction that stock prices will soften over the next six months, shed 4.2 pps to 35.5%, but remained above its 31.0% historical average for the fourth straight week.

But neutral sentiment, or those who expect the stock market to move sideways in the near-term, jumped 4.4 pps to 31.4%, hovering just below its 31.5% historical average, where it's been for 85 of the last 87 weeks.

Combined, the bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) widened by 4.1 ppts to -2.5. That's the fourth straight week that the spread has been narrower than the 6.5 historical average.

Last week, AAII asked its survey participants to weigh in on their perception of inflation.

Most (38.6%) said it's slowing, but not by enough, while 33.2% replied that price growth is returning to a more acceptable pace. Still, 22.4% believe that inflation is still rising too quickly.

The balance were unsure, or had no opinion.

(Stephen Culp)

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