Bill Ackman still sees a massive economic boom despite the delta variant, says rates to rebound

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said Monday that the spread of the delta variant doesn’t pose a threat to the economic reopening, seeing interest rates rising on the back of the big comeback.

“I hope what it does is that it motivates anyone who doesn’t get the vaccine to get the vaccine. I don’t think it’s going to change behavior to a great extent,” Ackman said in a interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday. “You are going to see a massive, my view, economic boom …. We are going to have an extremely strong economy coming in the fall.”

In mid-March at the height of the Covid-19 crisis, Ackman came on CNBC to warn investors that “hell is coming” and urge the White House to shut down the country for a month in an impassioned plea.

Days after the interview, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management revealed his firm exited the short positions on March 23 just as the S&P 500 bottomed, pocketing more than $2 billion in bets against markets in March.

The hedge fund manager has been betting big on the rebound in the restaurant, retail and hotel industries. His top holdings at the end of the first quarter included Lowe’s, Hilton, Restaurant Brands and Chipotle. He recently picked up Domino’s Pizza shares following a pullback.

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