Even Stocks at Record High Can't Lure Traders to Place Any Bets
- Activity in the SPY ETF is 40% below average for time of day
- Volumes have lagged this week, despite high profile earnings
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Stock traders seem to be losing faith in U.S. equities even as the S&P 500 Index touches a new high.
The $276 billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, a popular stock-market proxy, traded about 40% below its 20-day average for the time of day as of 12 p.m. in New York, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Activity has been depressed all week, with volumes in the exchange-traded fund, known as SPY, slumping to the lowest since mid-July. Meanwhile, overall trading on U.S. exchanges has lagged the 12-month average for the last nine trading days.