AAII Sentiment Survey: Neutral Sentiment Ticks Up

Neutral sentiment among individual investors about the short-term outlook for stocks increased in the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. Meanwhile, optimism and pessimism decreased.

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, decreased 1.2 percentage points to 49.6%. Bullish sentiment is unusually high for the second consecutive week and is above its historical average of 37.5% for the 46th time in 47 weeks.

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, increased 3.9 percentage points to 26.7%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the 12th consecutive week.

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased 2.7 percentage points to 23.7%. Bearish sentiment is below its historical average of 31.0% for the sixth time in seven weeks.

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) increased 1.5 percentage points to 25.9%. The bull-bear spread is above its historical average of 6.5% for the 20th time in 21 weeks.

This week’s special question asked AAII members about their thoughts on the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by 0.50 percentage points.

Here is how they responded:

• It was the right move: 57.3%
• They should have cut rates by a smaller amount: 29.0%
• They should have left rates unchanged: 6.5%
• They should have cut rates by a large amount: 0.8%
• Not sure/no opinion: 6.5%

See more Sentiment Survey results.