Spectrem Group announced today that its Spectrem Millionaire Index surged in November as concern about higher oil and gas prices eased significantly.

The November improvement returned millionaires to mildly bullish territory following the index’s consecutive all-time lows in September and October, which had pushed it into neutral territory. Prior to September, millionaires had been consistently mildly bullish dating back to October 2004.

Moving in tandem with the millionaire index, the Spectrem Affluent Investor Index, which measures the investment outlook of households with $500,000 or more in investable assets rose but remains neutral. While the affluent index has been neutral since March, November’s improvement moved it off the all-time lows it posted in October

Millionaires and affluent investors both showed sharp declines in their concern about higher oil and gas prices when asked about the news event most impacting their economic outlook.

“Millionaires snapped out of their two-month malaise in November, returning to the mildly bullish stance they had held since late 2004. Declining concern about energy prices on the part of both millionaires and the broader affluent population appeared to drive higher levels of investment optimism for both groups,” said George Walper Jr., president of Spectrem Group. ”While the millionaire and affluent indexes both rose sharply from the all-time lows they hit in October, it is important to note that the affluent index remains in neutral territory. The November results were indeed positive news, but we don’t expect to see affluent investors and millionaires storm back into the market during the holiday season. Caution is still in the air.”

In response to an open-ended question about the news event having the greatest impact on their economic outlook, affluent investors cited: the Iraq War (18%), increasing oil and gas prices (15%), natural disasters (6%), the economy (5%), the Federal Reserve/Alan Greenspan (5%), the deficit (4%), presidential election results (4%), and the stock market (2%). The percentage choosing higher oil and gas prices fell substantially from 48% in August, the last time this question was asked.

Millionaires also expressed sharply lower concern about oil and gas prices: 14% in November vs. 51% in August. Millionaires selected the Iraq War as their top concern in November at 17%, followed by oil and gas prices, the Federal Reserve/Alan Greenspan (6%) and the deficit (6%).

The Spectrem Affluent Investor Index is based on 250, 10-minute telephone interviews each month, giving the data a margin of error of plus or minus 6.2 percentage points. The Spectrem Millionaire Index is based on a subset of the overall survey group that can vary each month.