The relative resilience of US investor confidence, measured by State Street’s investor confidence index, might give some hope that this downturn will be short-lived, according to State Street Global Markets’ report.
Although the data indicated that the index dropped in March, State Street’s global head of macro strategy, Michael Metcalfe, stressed it was a relatively modest fall compared to the collapse in consumer sentiment reported last week.
“The relative resilience of US investor confidence seems to hint at an element of hope that this downturn will be short-lived and that policy measures already in place will be enough to restart the economy once the storm passes,” he noted.
According to Metcalfe, the data was even more apparent once the regional breakdown of the confidence indicator was taken into account as it showed that confidence of investors based in Asia Pacific actually improved in March and China showed tentative signs of going back to work.
“With this in mind, markets will be looking closely at the latest activity indicators in China, as to whether they portend a future turning point for Western markets once their storm also passed,” Metcalfe said.
Demand from institutional investors was the main driver of growth in Australia’s responsible investment (RI) market in 2023, as the industry continued to gain momentum.
Institutional investors have entered November with their largest pre-election equity allocation in two decades, according to new data.
The sovereign wealth fund remains cautious of the impact of high inflation as it announces a strong return in its latest update.
Australia is becoming increasingly recognised as an attractive investment opportunity against global counterparts, recent analysis has found.