Investor Confidence Index Falls

Global institutional investors continued to reduce their exposure to equities in December, according to State Street, whose Investor Confidence Index based on actual portfolios of their institutional clients fell to 79.8 down, down 2.8 points from the revised November reading. Driving the decline in the overall index was the continuing waning of confidence among North American investors, with the sub-index down 5.1 points to 74.1, overshadowing a 2.1 increase in to 94.0 in the European sub-index and an increase of 8.7 points to 110.6 in the Asian sub-index.