(Yahoo!Finance) - BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink on Monday said stocks could go down another 20% and that "most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now."
The US economy, he added during an appearance at the Economic Club of New York, is "weakening as we speak."
The boss of the world's largest money manager tried to inject some optimism amid his warnings, especially for investors with a long time horizon.
“Some stocks are down over 30%, 40% of their high water marks just from January," Fink said, "but … I would say in the long run, this is more of a buying opportunity. That doesn't mean we can't fall another 20% from here too, but I do believe over the long run, the vitality of the United States will persist."
Fink became the latest of several Wall Street bosses to weigh in on the tariff turmoil initiated by President Trump.
Several have offered a dour view of the economy. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual shareholder letter Monday the Trump administration’s new tariffs will produce short-term inflation and "slow down growth."
Whether they cause a recession "remains in question," he added.
Billionaire Bill Ackman, who supported Trump during the campaign, on Sunday called for the president to press pause on the tariffs for 90 days.
"I strongly believe launching tariffs on April 9th against the entire world — massively in excess of what we are being charged — is a mistake," he said on X.
Another billionaire investor, Stanley Druckenmiller, wrote on X that "I do not support tariffs exceeding 10%." Druckenmiller, a longtime Republican, used to oversee current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent when both were at George Soros’s hedge fund.
Fink did stop short of criticizing the Trump administration but urged for progress on some of the pro-growth policies that the president campaigned on — including tax cuts, streamlining of permits, and broader deregulation of certain sectors.
"We have to get that going," he said.
But he did say he was "troubled" to see the US acting as a "financial destabilizer," noting that for his 49-year Wall Street career and as far back as post-World War II the country has been a global stabilizer.
“Obviously, in the last week, we have not been a global stabilizer,” Fink said.
He said he does believe there is some need to equalize tariffs with other parts of the world and he agrees that the economy needs to be broadened to include more people.
"I think this is what President Trump is trying to do."
But he predicted more slowing in the coming months as the market pullback freezes more consumption.
"Most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now,” he said, citing one airline boss who told him that the “canary” in the proverbial coal mine was “sick already.”
Asked to evaluate the first 11 weeks of the new administration, he said: "Lot of volatility, lot of change."
By David Hollerith · Senior Reporter
