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INVESTOR OPTIMISM UP SLIGHTLY FOR DECEMBER

Investors Remain Pessimistic about the U.S. Economy; Worries over High Energy Prices and Residential Real Estate Continue

NEW YORK, December 21, 2007 – Investor optimism gained slightly in December rising 6 points to a level of 50 according to the UBS/Gallup Index of Investor Optimism. This marks the 2nd lowest level for the Index this year and is 40 points below that of December 2006. The Index is conducted monthly and had a baseline score of 124 when it was established in October 1996.

Most of the improvement in December’s Index can be found in the Economic Dimension of the Index, which measures investors’ feelings about the direction of the overall US economy. The Economic Dimension increased 5 points from -12 in November to -7 in December. Despite this uptick, 78 percent of investors describe the current U.S. economy as being in a slowdown or recession – essentially unchanged from the 79% who felt this way in November and up from 68 percent who felt this way in October.

Investor sentiment towards their own investments remained basically unchanged with the Personal Dimension of the Index, which measures Investors’ optimism about their individual investment portfolios, increasing 1 point to 57 from its level of 56 in November.

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