Institutional investors wary worldwide

Confidence among global institutional investors declined this month, led by a steep drop in confidence among North American investors, according to the State Street Global Markets Global Investor Confidence Index. Confidence among institutional investors fell 6.8 points to 77.2, from a revised July level of 84. The decline erases the index's five-point gain last month, from a revised June level of 79. Leading the decline were North American investors, whose confidence declined 8.1 points to 77.7, from 85.8 last month. European institutional investors' confidence declined to 77.3, from 80.3. Confidence among Asian institutional investors, however, rose to 88.9, from 85.3. “There appears to have been a cycle of risk appetite declines rippling across the major regions over the last two months,” State Street associate director Paul O'Connell said in a statement. “North American investors took a more pessimistic view in June, and European investors followed suit.” The index was developed through a research partnership between State Street Global Markets and Kenneth A. Froot, the André R. Jakurski Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in Boston. State Street Global Markets, the investment research and trading arm of Boston-based State Street Corp., managed $1.9 trillion in assets as of June 30.