Oct 21, 2003/ FW/ -- State Street Associates, a subsidiary of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT), the world's leading specialist in meeting the needs of institutional investors, released today the results of the State Street Investor Confidence Index(SM) for October 2003.

The October index shows investor confidence rose 1.7 points to 104.2 from a revised September level of 102.5. This increase continues the trend seen throughout much of 2003, with confidence rising from a level of 87.2 at the beginning of the year.

Developed by Harvard University professor Ken Froot and Paul O'Connell of State Street Associates, the index shows that institutional investors are upbeat, even as consumer confidence remains flat through 2003.

"Institutional investors continue to display a sense of optimism ahead of any changes in employment and spending," said Froot. "Yields on bonds have risen, but not by enough to dissuade investors from buying additional risky assets," O'Connell added.

Launched in September 2003, the State Street Investor Confidence Index(SM) combines a model of global investor behavior with information that tracks the common buying patterns of higher-risk investments by institutional investors around the world. Because the index is an unbiased quantitative measure of the investment behavior of thousands of institutional investors, it is not directly tied to good or bad news, or to the price of stocks, bonds or other assets. As such, the index provides a solid and empirical foundation on which to measure investor confidence.

For more information, please log on to www.statestreet.com/investorconfidenceindex