Investment guru Warren Buffett described Monday’s market plunge as a “one-two punch” of coronavirus and falling oil prices that it took him all his life to experience.
“If you stick around long enough, you’ll see everything in markets,” the Oracle of Omaha told Yahoo Finance.
“And it may have taken me to 89 years of age to throw this one into the experience, but the markets, if you have to be open second by second, they react to news in a big time way,” he said.
Crashing U.S. stocks on Thursday confirmed Wall Street is in a bear market after new travel restrictions to curb the coronavirus spread spooked investors and rattled world markets.
President Donald Trump's Europe travel ban announced late Wednesday sent all three major U.S. stock indexes into a tailspin, slamming the book on the longest-running U.S. bull market on record.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have lost about 24% of their value since reaching record closing highs just 16 sessions ago, as nations around the world grapple with how to contain the fast-moving coronavirus and its economic effects, Reuters explained.
A bear market is confirmed when an index sinks 20% or more below its most recent closing high.
However, Buffett said market plunges in 1987 and 2008 were more frightening.
“It wasn’t October 1987, but it was an imitation... [and the financial crisis] was much more scary, by far, than anything that happened [on Monday],” he said.
Meanwhile, Trump said he expects markets to recover from the mounting losses caused by the coronavirus outbreak that has killed thousands worldwide and crushed industries including airlines and hotels.
“It’s going to all bounce back and it’s going to bounce back very big,” Trump said Thursday at the White House during a meeting with Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Bloomberg reported.