Investor confidence at new low

The drop in confidence among North American investors was particularly sharp, with the index falling to 50.8, from a revised level of 75.1. Confidence in Europe fell marginally to 79.6, while Asian confidence was down just 0.6 points, to 86.5. "This month we saw a dramatic and unprecedented decline in investor confidence to a new record low, led by investors in North America," said Harvard University professor, Ken Froot. "We saw broad and important reductions of risk across investor portfolios previously, at times like the Asian Crisis in 1997 and the Russian-LTCM crisis in 1998. How...