In June, the stock market continued its slow climb to previously unseen heights, and the news of the day promised more great advancements for investing in the American economy. President Donald Trump has trade negotiation meetings scheduled with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 28, the Federal Reserve chairman suggested interest rate cuts might come later in the year, and the euphoria of the summer produced heightened levels of investing interest among consumers.

According to Spectrem’s Investor Confidence Indices, investors in June showed renewed interest in investing in individual stocks after pulling away from that category of investing for several months. At the same time, they reduced their interest in increasing allocations in the safer markets of individual bonds and cash products. This was true for both Millionaires and non-Millionaires, although there was a slight increase in Millionaires not investing, which are those who are not extending their portfolios in the coming month.

Here is a comparison of investors based on specific segmentation:

 

Millionaires vs. Non-Millionaires 

• Both Millionaires and non-Millionaires increased their interest in individual stock investing, and the increase was highest among non-Millionaires, from 15.8 percent to 24.4 percent. Millionaires also increased their interest in stock mutual fund investing from 36.8 to 38.6 percent. Millionaires did increase their interest in bond mutual fund investing from 16.2 to 19.7 percent as well. 
• Non-Millionaires reported a 4 percent decrease in interest in Bond Mutual Fund investing from 10.5 percent to 6.5 percent.
• There was a balance in those not investing between Millionaires and non-Millionaires. The percentage not investing rose among Millionaires from 28.7 percent to 33.1 percent, while it fell by a coordinating percentage among non-Millionaires from 53.5 percent to 48.8 percent.

 

Men vs. Women 

• Male investors were gung-ho on investing in June, increasing participation in investing in both stock and stock mutual fund investing while decreasing their interest in bond and cash investing. The indices for men climbed enormously in June, to 22 for Millionaires and 13 for all investors. Those are both the highest levels for the Spectrem Investor Confidence indices for male investors since August and September of last year.
• Females investors were not as enthusiastic, although they increased their interest in stock investing and individual bond investing slightly while the other categories saw holds from the previous month. But females not investing climbed again in June to 49.5 percent, after being as low as 31.8 percent in February. The indices for females remained in negative territory, rising to -6 among the affluent investors and dropping to -2 among Millionaires.

 

Republican vs. Democrat 

• The Spectrem Investor Confidence indices climbed for both Republican and Democrat investors, but the Republicans went large on their confidence in June. Among affluent investors with $500,000 or more in investable assets, the confidence index rose from 4 to 16 for Republicans, and for Republican Millionaire investors with $1 million or more in investable assets, the index rose from 11 to 25. Under a Republican-controlled executive branch and Senate, those confidence indices are expected to be high, but those rises are very large from May to June.
• Investors who vote Democratic reported very slight increases in their investor confidence level from May, but also increased their investing intentions in stock mutual funds, individual bonds, and cash, and saw a decrease in those not investing, down to 37.33 percent from 40.58 percent.
• Republicans increased their investing intentions in individual stocks from 31.40 percent to 37.10 percent, but decreased interest in all of the safer categories of investing, with sizable drop in both individual bond investing (from 17.6 percent to 6.19 percent) and cash investing (from 25.49 percent to 13.40 percent).

 

Working vs. Retired 

• The improved and steady conditions of the stock market is beneficial to the confidence of working investors. Investors still in the workplace not only bounced their overall confidence indices by more than 10 points, they increased investing in stocks and stock mutual funds after a couple of months of moving away from the stock market.
• Retired investors also increased investing interests in stocks and stock mutual funds, and their percentage of those not investing further in the coming month fell to a three-month low. Among Millionaires who are retired, the confidence index increased 2 points to 1, reaching positive territory for the first time in 2019, while among the Affluent investors, the confidence index rose 2 points to -6.

 

 

©2019 Spectrem Group