7 in 10 Global Investors Want to Adjust Portfolios Ahead of U.S. Election: UBS

Forty-nine percent of investors globally considered the U.S. an attractive investment, the highest across any one region.

Related: U.S. Stocks See Third-Biggest Outflow Ever

Fifty-five percent of Asian investors expressed optimism on the economic outlook in their own region over the next 12 months, in line with the global average. They were also more likely to adjust their portfolios around the U.S. election.

Eighty percent of Asian respondents said they were considering doing so before the vote, and 65% were planning to do so afterward.

Latin American investors in the survey were the most likely to express a positive short-term outlook, with 62% optimistic on their own region's economy and 60% on its stocks. Eighty-one percent said they were considering making portfolio changes in anticipation of the Nov. 3 election, and 73% planned to make additional changes based on the result, the highest proportions globally.

European respondents outside Switzerland expressed above-average optimism on their own region's economy over the next 12 months. Fifty-eight percent say they are optimistic, compared with 55% globally. Two-thirds of Europeans said they would adjust their portfolios after the U.S. elections.

Compared with their international peers, European investors are more likely to be planning to adjust their portfolios after the U.S. elections, with 65% saying they will do so.

In the short term, Swiss investors' optimism on their own region's economy and stocks has increased by the highest margin globally. Forty-four percent said they were optimistic on their region's economy over the next 12 months, up from 32% three months earlier, and 54% said the same about their region's stocks over the next six months, up from 42%.

Noting that investors appeared to be more positive on their own region than on the world at large amid uncertainty over the U.S. election and pandemic, UBS Global Wealth Management's Co-President Iqbal Khan said, "We believe they should diversify globally and avoid falling prey to their own home bias."

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