WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) - US investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage a financial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey.

The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of US respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency.

The poll also finds a decline in Obama's overall favourability rating one year after taking office. He is viewed favorably by 27 percent of US investors. In an October poll, 32 percent in the US held a positive impression.

"Investors no longer feel they can trust their instincts to take risks," said poll respondent David Young, a managing director for a broker dealer in New York.

Mr. Young cited Obama's efforts to trim bonuses and earnings, make health care his top priority over jobs and plans to tax "the rich or advantaged".

Carlos Vadillo, a fixed-income analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in San Francisco, said Obama has been in a "constant war" with the banking system, using "fat-cat bankers and other misnomers to describe a business model which supports a large portion of America".

Outside the US, Obama continues to get high marks with three-quarters or more of investors in Europe and Asia viewing him favourably. These rankings bring his global favorability rating to 60 percent among all poll respondents.

When it comes to his ability to manage a financial crisis, 55 percent of Europeans say they are either mostly or very confident; Among Asian respondents, 59 percent say they are somewhat confident or not confident; 38 percent expressed confidence.

Unlike other recent presidents, Obama has not selected a leading business executive for his cabinet or a top advisory role. One year after taking office, he is coping with a jobless rate hovering around 10 percent and a federal deficit that rose to $1.4 trillion last year.

In response, he has proposed a fee on as many as 50 large financial firms and yesterday called for limiting the size and trading activities of financial institutions as a way to reduce risk-taking.

"While the financial system is far stronger today than it was one year ago, it is still operating under the same rules that led to its near collapse," Obama said on Thursday at the White House after meeting with former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has been an advocate of taking such steps.

The poll was conducted January 19, before Obama unveiled the plan. Yesterday, after the announcement, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.9 percent, its biggest loss since October 30. The S&P 500 has risen 39 percent since Obama's Janyary 20, 2009, inauguration.

The US investors' perceptions of Obama stand in contrast to those of their European counterparts, most of whom say the president strikes the right balance when it comes to managing business interests. Europeans, however, are more confident in Obama's leadership on financial matters than Asians.

The quarterly Bloomberg Global Poll of investors, traders and analysts in six continents was conducted by Selzer & Co., a Des Moines, Iowa-based firm. It is based on interviews with a random sample of 873 Bloomberg subscribers, representing decision makers in markets, finance and economics. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.