N. American Investors Less Confident

Boston-based State Street Global Markets, the investment research and trading arm of State Street Corp., said the confidence of North American institutional investors decreased by 6.9 points to 84.7 on the State Street Investor Confidence Index for July.

Global investor confidence rose by 3.6 points to 82.6 from a revised June level of 79.0. Asian investors were the key drivers of the increase, according to State Street. State Street said the "risk appetite" of Asian investors increased by 8.5 points from 74.4 to 82.9.

European institutional investors' confidence fell by 0.9 points to 80.5.

The investor confidence index measures investor confidence by analyzing the buying and selling patterns of institutional investors.