Institutional investors were less confident when surveyed this month by State Street Global Markets, the investment research and trading arm of State Street Corp.

According to the July index released today, investor confidence decreased by 6.2 points to 84.3 from June’s revised reading of 90.5.

Looking regionally, the confidence of North American institutional investors fell from 106.7 to 99.1. The confidence of Asian investors increased slightly to 81.5 from 80.2, and the confidence of European investors decreased to 85.4 from 86.5.

“This month, it is clear that most of the action is coming from a decline in the confidence of North American institutional investors, expressed in buying and selling decisions,” said State Street Associates Director Paul O’Connell. “The confidence of Asian and European investors remains virtually unchanged. U.S. investors have had to contend with widely varying views of how the Fed and the U.S. economy will proceed, and this is expressed in the recent volatility of their confidence levels.”