Individual investors grew slightly more pessimistic about the U.S. stock market's near-term prospects in the latest American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment Survey.
Bearish sentiment, reflecting expectations that stock prices will fall over the next six months, rose 2 percentage points to 39.9%. That's above its long-term average of 31.0% for a 28th consecutive week, highlighting a persistent streak of caution among retail investors.
Neutral sentiment moved the other way, falling 2.8 percentage points to 24.6%. Investors expecting little change in stock prices remain relatively scarce, with neutral sentiment below its historical average of 31.5% for the 109th time in the past 111 weeks.
Despite the rise in pessimism, optimism also ticked higher. Bullish sentiment, or expectations that stocks will rise over the next six months, edged up 0.8 percentage point to 35.5%. Even so, it remains below its historical average of 37.5% for the seventh time in eight weeks.
The net result was a slightly more bearish tilt in the survey's closely watched bull-bear spread. The gap between bullish and bearish sentiment fell to negative 4.4% from negative 3.2% a week earlier, remaining below its long-term average of 6.5% for the seventh time in eight weeks.
Put simply, individual investors remain cautious, with bears continuing to outnumber bulls despite the slight uptick in optimism.
