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June 29, 2016 at 08:25 AM
(Bloomberg) — More than a third of U.S. voters see the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union as damaging to the American economy and four in 10 of those who have stock market investments say it will hurt their portfolios.
A Bloomberg/Morning Consult national poll on fallout from the Brexit vote on the western side of the Atlantic also shows deep concern about damage to the global economy and a general souring on stocks of companies outside the U.S.
Despite evidence of underlying anxiety about it, the British action doesn’t seem to be weighing too heavily on American consumers so far, with 50 percent of voters saying it will have no impact on their purchasing decisions. About a fifth say it will have a minor influence, while a tenth say it’s likely to affect their spending in a major way.
The online survey found most Americans are following Brexit news, with 28 percent of voters saying they’ve read, seen or heard “a lot” about the decision and another 36 percent answering “some” to that question.
“With financial markets taking a dive worldwide, U.S. voters by wide margins say the United Kingdom’s decision will hurt the U.S. economy, the U.K. economy and even the global economy,” said Kyle Dropp, co-founder and chief research officer at Morning Consult, a Washington-based media and technology company.
Read the questions and methodology here.
A majority of U.S. voters — 57 percent — say they don’t expect the U.K. verdict will influence their vote in the presidential election. For the roughly quarter who say it will, almost half say it will make them more likely to support Democrat Hillary Clinton, while 35 percent say Republican Donald Trump.
Among U.S. voters with investments in the stock market, 41 percent say they think the Brexit decision will hurt their portfolios, while 17 percent see it as a positive.
Many in that pool of people — voters with investments who see the outcome having either good or bad consequences — are considering increasing their cash or gold positions. Both are traditional safe havens amid uncertainty.
Four in 10 of those investors say they’re inclined to buy more in gold, while a third say they’re likely to hold larger cash positions. After closing Monday at its highest level since July 2014, gold slipped lower on Tuesday as global markets recovered some of the ground they had lost in the previous two trading sessions.
Roughly half of investors who think Brexit will have an impact on their portfolios — 51 percent — say they’re less likely to invest in international stock markets. Views on U.S. stock markets are more mixed, with a third saying they’ll invest less in that asset class, 30 percent saying more and 29 percent saying about the same.
The poll was conducted Friday through Monday, starting the day the outcome of the vote became known and as the U.S. and global stock markets recorded significant drops.
The survey used a nationally representative opt-in panel of 2,003 registered voters, including 898 with money in the stock market through direct investment or retirement accounts. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points on the full sample, and plus or minus 3.3 percentage points for investors.
