A Biden victory in U.S. presidential election could be ‘positive’ for Asia, Nomura says

If Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the upcoming elections in November that could be a boon for Asia, according to Nomura’s Rob Subbaraman.

“For Asia specifically, if Biden wins, I think it will be actually positive,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday.

“A Biden presidency — if he were to win — will result in more certain policymaking, foreign policymaking,” said Subbaraman, who is head of global macro research at Nomura. “That’s been very lacking and I think there’ll be more coalition building. I think that it will be more generally favorable for the region.”

While the analyst said he expects Biden to “be tough” on China on more issues than just trade, he said the former U.S. vice president would be “positive for the rest of the world” overall.

Tensions between the U.S. and China have risen sharply under incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump. The disputes between the world’s two economic superpowers range from trade to alleged concerns over national security, drawing companies like Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei into the crossfire.

Biden formally became his party’s nominee for president late Tuesday at the virtual Democratic National Convention.

Subbaraman said, however, that U.S. markets could take a hit under a Biden presidency.

“I think there will be a lot more focus on income redistribution in the U.S., which will not be good for U.S. markets,” Subbaraman said.

He added that a Biden presidency could potentially focus on higher taxes and being tougher on tech companies, which would be “more negative” for markets stateside relative to elsewhere.

The S&P 500 on Tuesday rose to a new record closing high, recovering from its slump in March, when the coronavirus pandemic left economies across the world effectively frozen as social distancing measures were implemented by authorities.