Barack Obama's re-election as President of the United States was unexpected and is disappointing, but will in all likelihood boost stock markets, Dennis Gartman, founder of the Gartman Letter told CNBC Wednesday.
"I'm a bit surprised and dismayed but it was a very close election - just 1 million votes between the two candidates. There's very little change in Congress and the Senate (which) means that things are the same," Gartman said.
Gartman had predicted a decisive win for Republican Mitt Romney earlier this week believing Romney could win "quite handily." He had noted a number of historical parallels which pointed to a likely Romney win, claiming the polls were "badly out of touch." Polls had in recent days shown a small but clear lead for Obama.
He did however have a strong caveat to his prediction claiming he could be "terribly wrong." "History proves that Democrat presidents are better for stock prices than Republican presidents and I suspect that the bull market that's been intact since March 2009 will continue to move higher as the monetary authorities expand reserves in the system," he said.
He conceded that the economy was making strides forward under Obama's presidency.
"The economy is doing better and in a year's time we could even see GDP (growth) of 2.5 to 3 percent. That is supportive of the stock market and one could be bullish on shares," Gartman added.
A strongly fought and sometimes bitter campaign saw Obama take the election reasonably decisively after key swing states including Virginia, Colorado and Ohio, came his way ensuring Romney's defeat.
Democrats retain the Senate while the Republicans keep control of the House.
Gartman added that the only good thing to come out of the election was that Obama could cut the deficit by putting into place his promised reforms to social security and medicare - and cut spending.
- By CNBC's Shai Ahmed, Follow her on twitter @shaicnbc
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