As July’s Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ continued their rollercoaster gyrations, Spectrem’s Investment Preferences, which reflects affluent investor intentions in the near term, showed affluent investors pulling even further away from the marketplace action, with “Not Investing” up for Millionaires (+9 points), and all other investment preferences down, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds , cash and real estate.

The sharpest declines were in Stock Market Mutual Funds, which saw a steep decline with Millionaires (-15), and Cash Investing which witnessed the steepest plunge among both Millionaires (-18) and the Affluent (-16).Signs of a general affluent retreat from market exposure, are supported by their near-term intention to pull back from all investments, including Cash which suffered its largest drop in 12 months. Oddly, Cash’s drop did not correspond with a rise in equities, as has happened in the past. And where many investors may offset a withdrawal from a volatile stock market with increases in bond purchases or cash equivalent investments, the end of July 2007 finds the affluent retreating from it all.

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