Measures of how wealthy US citizens view the investment climate deteriorated last month with concerns about domestic politics playing a key role in depressing sentiment, new figures have shown.

The Spectrem affluent investor confidence index deteriorated by five points in December last year, while the Spectrem millionnaire investor confidence index (MICI) fell by six points.

The falls in December follow gains of five and three points in November for the AICI and MICI respectively, and mean that 2009 ended with the AICI in slightly bearish territory at minus 15, and the MICI in neutral territory at minus ten.

When asked what the most serious threat to achieving their financial goal was, affluent investors in December cited: the political climate (22 per cent); the economy (18 per cent); unemployment (12 per cent); market conditions (6 per cent); inflation (6 per cent); and health-related issues (4 per cent).

Those citing the political climate rose while those citing the economy fell, with millionnaire investors more likely to cite the political climate than affluent investors.

“Affluent investors and millionaires saw their investment confidence decline in December, with the affluent returning to a mildly bearish stance.  While more positive on the economy, rising concerns about the political climate are making wealthy Americans a little less optimistic heading into the New Year,” said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group.

The AICI started 2009 at -28, hit a year-low of -38 in February and then rose steadily until May when it reached -12, before falling eight points to -20 in June. In the second half of the year, the indicator was considerably less volatile, remaining between minus ten and 20. The MICI followed a similar pattern, beginning the year at -21, hitting a year-low in February at -34, rising until May and then dropping an all-time record 18 points in June before smoothing out in the second half of the year. 

The AICI is based on 250 monthly interviews with the financial decision-makers in US-based households with $500,000 or more in investable assets, while the MICI is based on a subset of these. Yesterday this publication reported results from State Street – calculated on a quantitative basis by analysing the actual buying and selling patterns of institutional investors – which showed investor sentiment in the US rose moderately in December, rose strongly in Asia and declined slightly in Europe.