Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital II LLC, speaks during the International Economic Forum of the Americas (IEFA) Toronto Global Forum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Sept. 6, 2019.
Cole Burston | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Investors appear happy that there may not be a “blue wave” outcome in the U.S. elections, as seen in the rally in world markets, said Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund investor and former White House communications director.
U.S. stock futures rose on Thursday following a positive session on Wednesday. Asian markets rallied in Thursday trade, while European markets also climbed higher.
“I think the markets do like the notion that there wasn’t a ‘blue wave,'” Scaramucci, founder and co-managing partner of Skybridge Capital, told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble and Matthew Taylor on Thursday.
Markets had priced in expectations for a “blue wave” in which Democrats would sweep the White House, Senate and the House of Representatives.
Ahead of the election this week, Democrats were hoping to retain control of the House and edge out the Republicans for a majority in the Senate. NBC News has projected that Democrats will keep their House majority, but Republicans — which are slightly ahead in the Senate race — look likely to win control of the upper chamber.
“That sort of mixture of government will slow things down from a tax policy point of view … I suspect that they will pass a pretty big stimulus and infrastructure bill, which will hopefully boost the economy both here in the United States and around the world,” Scaramucci said.
Scaramucci, who served briefly under U.S. President Donald Trump, said he believes Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will win the election — which will be “very good news for the world.”
“The markets are reacting very favorably to that as well. It will mean a return to a level of normalcy, less … tweeting, less sort of nonsense borne from impetuosity. And I’m very happy about it personally,” he said.
The presidential race remains too close to call as officials continue to count the ballots, but Biden is leading with 253 electoral votes, according to NBC News.
But Scaramucci acknowledged that Trump has a hold on a big number of voters, especially working-class families who are struggling to move up the social ladder.
“There’s distress in the system, there’s a very large part of the American public that frankly, is not doing well,” he said. “They are attached to the president. He represents them, he’s an avatar for their anger.”
He said that these people want to feel better and that they have upward mobility within the American society. If that can happen, “you’ll see a die off of populism and nationalism,” he added.
‘Thrown in the garbage’
Separately, Scaramucci said modern era polling has to be “thrown in the garbage.”
“The indictment there is related to their methodology,” he said. “Frankly, they’re probably interviewing too many people in a closed circuit that are Democrats.”
Ahead of Election Day, most polls found Trump trailing Biden by 10 points or more. The race turned out to be much closer, with Trump receiving 48% of votes and Biden getting 50.5% so far, according to NBC News.
Scaramucci said one pollster told him they need to “branch out and find more Republicans, and make sure the Republicans are speaking honestly to us.”
“One of the phenomena of the Trump era (is that) there are many Trump supporters that, due to the social stigma of supporting him, perhaps were lying in the polls,” he said. “But yes, the methodology of these polls, the modern era of polling has to be thrown in the garbage.”
