Billionaire 'Bond King' Bill Gross says a Trump win would be 'disruptive' for markets
James Devaney for GC Images; Tim Rue for Getty Images
- Bill Gross warned that a second Trump presidency could harm bond markets.
- Gross highlighted that Trump's tax cuts and spending programs would worsen the fiscal deficit.
- The candidates have put forward very different tax plans on their presidential agendas.
Donald Trump winning the presidential election would be bad news for the bond markets, said "Bond King" Bill Gross.
A Trump presidency would worsen US fiscal deficits, which would hurt bonds, the billionaire investor and PIMCO cofounder said in an interview with the Financial Times.
"Trump is the more bearish of the candidates simply because his programs advocate continued tax cuts and more expensive things," Gross said.
He noted that Joe Biden's presidency has also been responsible for trillions of dollars of deficit spending but said that "Trump's election would be more disruptive."
In 2016, Gross said that he did not vote for Trump or for Clinton.
Earlier this month, Gross wrote a note about the US fiscal deficit. He said that the deficit, which is largely driven by a massive rollout of Treasury bonds, is now necessary to propel the economy forward, which is fueling upward pressure on bond yields.
The exploding US deficit has put Gross off of his famous bond strategy. He declared in his recent note that "total return is dead." He told the FT that he's now focusing on oil and gas pipeline investments and tobacco stocks.
Gross's comments come just months before the US heads to polls in November to decide between the two candidates. Trump, the former president and the Republican candidate, is awaiting jury deliberation on a long and high-profile "hush money" criminal trial. A guilty verdict would make Trump the first former US president to be convicted of a crime.
The two candidates have proposed wildly different tax plans, which affect the fiscal deficit.
Biden's tax plan would raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, and the minimum corporate tax rate from 15% to 21%, according to a White House fact sheet.
Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act established a 21% corporate income tax rate — a decrease from 35%. Trump said he would maintain that rate if elected again.