Paul Tudor Jones speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020.
Adam Galica | CNBC
Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones said Tuesday it’s a extremely tough time to be an investor in risk assets amid escalating geopolitical tensions and dire fiscal position in the U.S.
“It’s a really challenging to want to be an equity investor and U.S. stocks right now,” Jones said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “You’ve got the geopolitical uncertainty… the United States is probably in its weakest fiscal position since certainly World War II with debt to GDP at 122%.”
The high-profile investor said the Israel-Hamas war brought on the most threatening and challenging geopolitical environment, while would create a risk-off market environment. Meanwhile, a surge in interest rates has deteriorated the fiscal health of the U.S. as the country continues to take on more debt.
“As interest costs go up in the United States, you get in this vicious circle, where higher interest rates cause higher funding costs, cause higher debt issuance, which cause further bond liquidation, which cause higher rates which put us in an untenable fiscal position,” Jones said.
Jones is founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment Corp. He shot to fame after he predicted and profited from the 1987 stock market crash.
He is also the chairman of nonprofit Just Capital, which ranks public U.S. companies based on social and environmental metrics.
