Investors More Bullish on Obama

Bloomberg reports:

President Barack Obama is gaining popularity among investors as he pivots to promoting U.S. global competitiveness in the State of the Union Address he delivers tonight.

Fifty-three percent of investors now view him favorably, up from 49 percent in November, reversing a yearlong deterioration in perceptions of the U.S. president, according to a quarterly poll of 1,000 Bloomberg customers who are investors, traders or analysts conducted Jan. 20-24. The turnaround follows Obama’s conclusion of a free-trade agreement with South Korea and a lame-duck legislative deal to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.

Investors are now almost evenly split on the impact of his policies on the U.S. business climate, compared with an almost 2-to-1 negative assessment only three months ago. During this same period, he has also regained some ground with the U.S. public.

The tax cuts, says poll respondent Charles Doraine, 63, president of Doraine Wealth Management Group in Corpus Christi, Texas, “have created a sense of certainty that we all needed.” He says recent efforts by Obama to reach out to business leaders are “an unexpected bonus.”

U.S. investors and their foreign counterparts continue to hold divergent views of Obama, as they have since the quarterly poll began in July 2009. While 56 percent of U.S. investors say they are pessimistic about the administration’s impact on the investment climate, that is an improvement from November, when 68 percent said they were pessimistic.

Obama’s personal popularity has dropped slightly among U.S. investors, with 64 percent viewing him unfavorably, compared with 62 percent in November. Among European investors, 66 percent view him favorably, up from 60 percent in November; among Asian investors, 58 percent hold positive views, up from 56 percent.