Most Investors Staying Put Until After Election: Survey
Seven in 10 investors say Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis is neither bullish nor bearish, according to Investing.com.
A poll conducted Oct. 5 and 6 among 1,164 U.S.-based investors found that seven in 10 expressed indifference to President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis from a market standpoint, the financial markets platform Investing.com reported Friday.
One in five investors said they were more bullish, with the president said to be in recovery from the virus.
Related: Most Fund Managers Say Recession Is Over: BofA
Respondents’ big concern was the post-election period. Sixty percent said they planned no changes to their investments before Nov. 3, while 86% expected the election results to have a moderate or significant effect on financial markets.
“The initial downward move was nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to the dramatic headlines,” Jesse Cohen, senior analyst at Investing.com, said in a statement.
“As the hours and days progressed, it became clear that President Trump was not in a life-threatening situation, easing worries over a sudden deterioration in his health.”
Far more important factors that are likely to influence the market in the weeks ahead are the election result and whether the winner will introduce a fresh round of stimulus, Cohen said.
Two-thirds of investors surveyed said that a Trump win would provide the better outcome for U.S. financial markets, while only 16% saw a victory by Joe Biden providing a better outcome.
Related: 9 Ways Your Clients’ Taxes Could Change Under Biden
Fifty-three percent of respondents believed that the stock market’s performance over the past four years will be the key to Trump’s reelection. At the same time, nearly half of those surveyed believed that his administration’s response to the pandemic posed the biggest threat to his chances of a second term.
Other recent polling suggested that the latter sentiment was holding sway.
No matter the outcome of the election, 60% of investors in the Investing.com survey said the economy was on track to improve. However, they were more divided on how long it would take for the U.S. economy to completely recover.
Forty-three percent believed that this could happen in the next year, while 16% said it would not happen in the upcoming term, whoever is in the driver’s seat.
— Related on ThinkAdvisor: