Global Investors Taking On More Risk (At Least In Some Regions)

The State Street Global Investor Confidence Index rose 3.1 points from the April reading of 103.2 (see Hedge Fund Review article). The North American version of the index rose 9.6 points to 104.9. For the index, anything over 100 indicates that institutional investors are increasing allocations to risky assets, indicating that investors in North America, and in general across the globe, are adding more risky assets (i.e., more equities) to their portfolios. On the other hand, the indexes for Europe and Asia are still below the 100 benchmark. While the Europe index rose 7.5 points to 84.3, the Asia index fell 4.9 points to 93.1. Time will tell which regions are leading or lagging indicators of the global markets, or if a contrarian move is in order.