After a record-strong February month, there is now a clear decrease in interest in stocks in the US in the wake of the bank crisis, reports WSJ.
The newspaper notes that net purchases of individual investors’ stocks have “fallen sharply” after the monthly record in February.
This makes the “markets more vulnerable,” writes The Wall Street Journal.
Not since November 2020 has individual investors’ appetite for the stock market been so low, according to statistics from Vanda cited in the article.
As of Thursday, stock purchases totaling about $8.9 billion had been made over ten trading sections, compared with the peak of $17 billion during the corresponding period that ended on February 16.
Therefore, interest in the stock market has cooled in the US. “Private investors have taken their foot off the gas pedal,” says Marco Iachini, senior vice president at Vanda.
The decreased stock market interest is mainly explained by the bank crisis with two American and historic bank collapses, and Credit Suisse ending up on hold and urgently taken over by competitor UBS.
In the US, regulators and bank executives have rushed to restore trust in the financial system as much as possible after the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
It should be noted that US stocks, writes WSJ, have shown resilience in the turbulence, and the broad stock index S&P 500 was able to end March with an increase of 3.5 percent.
Since the beginning of the year, the S&P 500 is up 7 percent. “Still, some investors are increasingly concerned about the possibility of a recession on the horizon,” writes WSJ.
New job figures are being released in the US during the week, which are expected to have an impact on the stock market.