Larry Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., pauses ahead of a Bloomberg Television interview at the Blackrock Inc. wealth symposium in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday, March 7, 2019
Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Larry Fink, co-founder of the world’s biggest money management firm, told CNBC on Thursday the stock market’s coronavirus low last month may have been the pandemic bottom.
“If the disease curve in the developed world continues to decline [and] at the same time we see the curve from governmental support for monetary policy and fiscal policy worldwide increases, we could have seen the bottom,” said the BlackRock chairman and CEO.
The S&P 500 saw its most recent low of 2,191 on March 23, which marked a decline of 35% from its February record. The index, as of Wednesday’s close, was less than 18% off those highs.
Fink, who appeared on “Squawk Box” shortly after BlackRock reported a 23% drop in first-quarter earnings, warned that the stock market underappreciates that the virus has mostly hit the developed world.
“As we start entering summer time [in the U.S.], the southern hemisphere is beginning to have their winter. And are we going to see an acceleration in the disease in other parts of the world? And does that mean close our borders for a longer period of time?” he asked.
Dow futures were pointing to a steady open on Thursday. Terrible economic numbers pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 445 points, or 1.9%, on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 2.2% and the Nasdaq lost 1.4%. Weak bank earnings also weighed on the market Wednesday.