Investor confidence up by 6.6 points in May 2019
State Street Global Investor Confidence index increased to 79.5 in May 2019, up 6.6 points from April's revised reading of 72.9.
Confidence among North American and European investors improved, with the North American ICI rising from 71.3 to 76.7, and the European ICI rising from 86.6 to 92.5. By contrast, the Asia ICI dropped by 4.2 points to 88.4.
"Investors that embraced ‘sell in May and go away' rested easier this month, as risk assets are experiencing their weakest performance of the year. Driven by trade and growth concerns, global equities are set to close broadly in the red for the first time this year. Yields have all but collapsed, with developed market sovereign interest rates falling to their lowest levels in years," said, Marvin Loh, senior global macro strategist, State Street Global Markets. "The overall hesitancy that we have seen from investors all year, reflects many of the concerns that emerged this month."
Kenneth Froot, developer of Investor Confidence Index commented: "Trade war and Brexit-related uncertainty dominated this month's headlines. Institutional investors have been wary, and with potential supply-chain disruptions and concerns about rising protectionism it is understandable that sentiment remains anchored in the risk-averse territory. However, while the low level of the index points to risk-off behaviour over the last few months, the solid uptick this month indicates some investors may be moving back in to buy the dip."
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