Global investor confidence decreased 6.1 points to 86.5 in February, as measured by State Street Global Markets' Investor Confidence index released on Tuesday.
Much of the decrease from January was driven by increasingly pessimistic North American investors, whose confidence fell 9.5 points to 80.5 in February, the lowest reading for North America in more than three years, according to a news release.
European investors' confidence, however, increased by 4 points to 95.2, while confidence in Asia stayed relatively stable with a decrease of only 0.3 to 96.3.
“The latest round of policy developments in Europe went some way toward lowering the risk of a catastrophic ‘tail event' crisis, and this improved the mood of European investors,” Paul O'Connell, vice president and senior researcher of State Street Associates, co-author of the report, said in the release.
“Asian investors held their outlook constant, though we did note that net purchases of Pacific ex-Japan equities by all global investors were relatively robust. It is among U.S. investors that the tendency to sell into the recent market strength was most pronounced.”
Neither Mr. O'Connell nor report co-author Kenneth Froot was available for comment.
