AAII Sentiment Survey: Bullish Sentiment Above Average for First Time in Four Weeks

Bullish sentiment is above average for the first time in four weeks in the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. Neutral sentiment is at a seven-week low, and bearish sentiment is at a four-week low.

Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, increased 9.1 percentage points to 42.2%. Optimism is above its historical average of 37.5% for the first time in four weeks.

Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially unchanged over the next six months, decreased 4.2 percentage points to 28.2%. Neutral sentiment is below its historical average of 31.5% for the first time in four weeks.

Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, decreased 4.9 percentage points to 29.6%. Bearish sentiment is below its historical average of 31.0% for the first time in three weeks.

The bull-bear spread (bullish minus bearish sentiment) increased 14.0 percentage points to 12.6%. This is the first time in four weeks that the bull-bear spread is above its historical average of 6.5%.

This week’s special question asked AAII members about their perception of inflation. Here are the responses:

• Slowing, but not by enough: 48.0%
• It’s returning to a more acceptable pace: 34.8%
• It’s still rising too quickly: 16.0%
• Other/not sure: 0.9%

See more Sentiment Survey results.