Investing

Investor Optimism at 7-Year High

ThinkstockIn its most recent reading on investor and retiree optimism, Gallup reported on Friday that its Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index rose to +46 in August, the highest index reading since the fall of 2007. The index peak…

By Paul Ausick
Published September 26, 2014, 2:47pm ET · 1 min read

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In its most recent reading on investor and retiree optimism, Gallup reported on Friday that its Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index rose to +46 in August, the highest index reading since the fall of 2007. The index peak was posted in January of 2000 at a reading of +178.

The inex surveys U.S. investors with a minimum of $10,000 invested in any combination of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, self-directed IRAs, and 401(k) retirement accounts. The latest results are based on 1,011 interview between August 15th and August 24th. The interviewees included 374 retirees and 631 non-retired investors.

Investors are more sanguine about their personal abilities to maintain or improve their income over the next year (+47 index score) than they are about the health of the U.S. economy (-1).

  • Gallup noted several reasons to consider the gains as modest:
  • Optimism remains far below the levels of the early 2000s and less than half its level of January 2007.
  • Optimism has bounced around in recent years rather than moving steadily upward.
  • Non-retiree optimism is higher (+50 index score) than retiree optimism (+35) likely due to an improving jobs picture.

Gallup Investor Optimism 9-26-2014

Gallup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Paul Ausick

Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.

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