Wait-and-see crowd grows as bulls ease — AAII

Individual investors grew somewhat more cautious in the latest American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Sentiment Survey, with neutral views rising as both optimism and pessimism eased.

Bullish sentiment, which reflects expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, slipped 2.3 percentage points to 34.7%. That's below the long-term average of 37.5% for the sixth time in the past seven weeks.

Meanwhile, neutral sentiment climbed 2.4 percentage points to 27.4%, suggesting more investors are taking a wait-and-see approach. Even so, neutral sentiment remains below its historical average of 31.5%, marking the 108th time in the past 110 weeks that it has come in below that benchmark.

Bearish sentiment was little changed, edging down 0.1 percentage point to 37.9%. Even so, pessimism remains elevated, staying above its long-term average of 31.0% for a 27th consecutive week.

Overall, the survey showed investors becoming slightly less optimistic. The bull-bear spread, a closely watched measure of investor outlook, fell 2.2 percentage points to negative 3.2% from negative 1.0% a week earlier. The spread has been below its historical average of 6.5% in six of the past seven weeks, suggesting investors remain cautious even with stocks hovering near record highs.