Investor Confidence Falls to 3-Year Low

Investor confidence in the stock market and the economy dropped in early April to a three-year low, a survey showed. And people’s return expectations also are sliding.

UBS PaineWebber’s investor confidence index fell 21 points to 116 in the firm’s monthly survey, completed April 15, the brokerage said.

Investors on average are expecting their return on investments over the next 12 months to be 8.7%, the lowest in the survey since June 1998, when the data started to be reported, and down from 10.4% in March.

Among the least experienced investors, those with less than five years’ experience in the markets, expectations for returns fell to 7.5% from 12% in March.

By contrast, expectations among the most experienced investors, those with more than 20 years in the markets, rose slightly to 10.5% from 10% last month.

The survey selects 1,003 investors randomly from across the country who are the head of a household or a spouse in any household with total savings and investments of $10,000 or more.