Confidence among affluent investors has dropped to its all-time lowest level as measured by the Spectrem Group's four-year-old Affluent Investor Index, which tumbled 13 points in January.
The Chicago research firm said Wednesday that the index stood at a record low of minus-13 last month, in mildly bearish territory for the first time since its inception in February 2004.
The January decline in the measure of the investment outlook in households with $500,000 or more of assets erased a 5-point gain in December and left the index well below its previous record low of minus-6, reached in October 2005. It also ranks as the biggest one-month decline since the index was started, eclipsing the 10-point drop in March 2007.
Spectrem's Millionaire Investor Index, meanwhile, fell 14 points, matching the record decline in March 2007 and setting a record low of minus-6.
Its previous record was zero, in October 2005. The January decline, which kept the index in neutral territory, reversed a five-point gain in December and resumed the index's overall downward trend, which began in May.
Since May, the index has lost 26 points.
