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INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS FOCUS ON THE ECONOMY AND/OR INFLATION - AAII

Pessimism among individual investors over their short-term outlook for the U.S. stock market declined in the latest American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment Survey. With this, both optimism and neutral sentiment were higher.

Meanwhile, just over one third of investors surveyed said that the "economy and/or inflation" is the factor most influencing their six-month outlook for stocks.

AAII reported that bearish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, dipped 1.9 percentage points to 30.8%. Bearish sentiment is below its historical average of 31.0% for the sixth time in nine weeks.

Bullish sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, added 1.2 percentage points to 44.4%. Bullish sentiment is above its historical average of 37.5% for the ninth time in 12 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, or expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, edged up 0.7 percentage points to 24.8%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 80th time in 82 weeks.

The bull-bear spread rose just over 3 percentage points to 13.6% from 10.5% last week. The spread is above its historical average of 6.5% for the 13th time in 52 weeks.

In this week's special question, AAII asked its members which factor is most influencing their six-month outlook for stocks.

Here is AAII's graphic showing how they responded:

(Terence Gabriel)

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