Fear Poll Respondents Focus on Fiscal Cliff, Dismissive of European Financial Crisis

For the eighth week in a row, concerns about the U.S. fiscal cliff topped the VIX and More weekly fear poll. Fears related to excessive central bank intervention nudged out concerns related to government and politicians as the #2 issue, but perhaps the most interesting development is the how much the anxiety related to the European sovereign debt crisis continues to subside.

From a geographical perspective, U.S. and non-U.S. respondents had a relatively low divergence of opinion this week. That being said, whereas U.S. respondents cited the fiscal cliff as the top concern, non-U.S. respondents were most concerned about excessive central bank intervention in the economy. Perhaps part of the fallout from the fiscal cliff negotiations is that U.S. respondents see governments and politicians as much more likely to be the top threat to the stock market, by a margin of 5.6% over non-U.S. respondents.

Interestingly, both U.S. and non-U.S. respondents expressed much less concern about the euro zone problems, with only 4.9% of U.S. respondents citing euro zones as the #1 concern, while 5.9% of non-U.S. respondents put the euro zone issues at the top of the list.

With the FOMC meeting scheduled to wind up on Wednesday, the fiscal cliff talks inching closer to that last day on which legislation can be introduced in Congress for the year (December 18^th, based upon a December 21^st recess) and Alcoa scheduled to report Q4 earnings and unofficially kick of the next earnings reporting season on January 8^th, there is the potential for quite a few things to hit the fan in the coming month.

In spite of all these threats looming just around the corner, the VIX remains subdued and is still in a position to reinforce the notion that December Is the Cruelest Month…for the VIX.

Once again, thanks to all who participated in this weekly poll.

Related posts:

• Fear of Governments and Politicians Climb Rapidly as Euro Zone Worries Fade
• Fiscal Cliff Concerns Top Fear Poll, But Central Banks and Politicians Seen as Key Systemic Threats
• Fiscal Cliff and European Sovereign Debt Concerns Recede, Earnings Worries Linger
• Calm Down and Exploit Others’ Anxieties (Barron’s)
• Fear Poll: Fiscal Cliff Fears Spike , Concerns About Excessive Central Bank Interventions Rise
• Fiscal Cliff Worries Grow as Election Nears
• U.S Fiscal Cliff Fears Top VIX Fear Poll Again
• U.S. Fiscal Cliff Concerns Top Results in Inaugural VIX and More Fear Poll
• A Conceptual Framework for Volatility Events
• Forces Acting on the VIX
• Thinking About Volatility (First in a Series)

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