SEARCH
Rising investor confidence in Europe and Asia in December was offset by a decrease in risk appetite in the US, according to State Street.
The State Street Investor Confidence Index (ICI) rose to 108.3 in December, up one point from November's revised reading of 107.3.
The index takes a reading of 100 as 'neutral' on institutional investors' appetite for risky assets.
European sentiment increased from 96.2 to 103.7 in December, while the Asian ICI was up 4.6 points to 105.1.
The North American ICI, by contrast, decreased 5.9 points to 106.6.
State Street Associates' Kenneth Froot, who developed the ICI with his colleague Paul O'Connell, said US investors have become "increasingly risk averse" into the year end.
"Uncertainty about global growth, weak commodity prices and the beginning of the Fed tightening cycle have eroded confidence to take risk," Mr Froot said.
Senior managing director and head of global macro strategy at State Street Global Markets, Michael Metcalfe said, "The knee-jerk reaction from European equity and bond markets was to sell off together when the European Central Bank eased but failed to increase its asset purchases program in early December.
"It appears European long-term investors were more forgiving as their allocation to risky assets went up over the course of the month," Mr Metcalfe said.
Read more:
Tough 2016 ahead for emerging markets
NAB Asset Servicing announces interim boss
LGsuper to launch rebrand in February
BetaShares has announced the launch of new ETFs to offer investors access to two of the world’s most significant alternative energy sourc...
Agricultural land could be highly beneficial for investors and should be taken seriously as a long-term investment according to Tim Samway, ...
The dominance of resource and mining companies is a major contributing factor to potential losses. ...