Investor sentiment plunges to 16-month low, AAII survey shows

Investor sentiment fell to its lowest point since 2025, a weekly survey from the American Association of Individual Investors showed, as oil prices remained elevated while the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time since 2023.

More than half of investors (53.3%) responding to the latest survey from AAII, released Friday, said they were bearish. Just 28.8% of investors are bullish, the lowest reading in a year.

All told, the spread between the number of bulls and bears in the market has fallen to -24.5%, which is “unusually low” and below its historical average of 6.5% for the ninth consecutive week, Charles Rotblut, vice-president of the American Association of Individual Investors, said in a release. The reading is the lowest since May 2025.

Traders sometimes use the sentiment gauge as a contrarian indicator, with a high reading showing complacency and a low one indicating investor fear. The latest result comes with the S&P 500 Index some 2% from its all-time high following a period of late-summer volatility.

The latest survey also showed over half of respondents had larger allocations to cash than normal — a sign of caution. Indeed, 19.1% of respondents said their cash allocations were “much higher than normal.”