North American investors lose confidence

Institutional investors in North America lost confidence in the financial markets in the last month, according to the latest data from the research arm of Boston investment house State Street Corp.

State Street Global Markets' monthly investor confidence index report measures the confidence of investors around the world by looking at their willingness to hold stocks in their portfolios. Then it assigns a number to illustrate their tolerance for risk, with higher numbers showing indicating greater confidence and lower numbers the inverse.

Last month, North American investors had a higher level of confidence than investors broadly, but it was one of the only regions' measured where confidence dipped. The North American index fell to 95.2 in August from 98.1 last month. That compares with an index of 86.5 for Asian investors and 88.4 for European investors, both of which rose compared to a month ago.
(By Keith Reed, Globe staff)