Ray Dalio clarifies his previous comments that the market impact of coronavirus has been exaggerated

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Ray Dalio clarified in a LinkedIn post that he believes coronavirus could have a substantial impact in the near-term, but that the market sell-off did not reflect the temporary nature of the outbreak. 

The post followed up comments Dalio made Tuesday at a conference in Abu Dhabi that the coronavirus “probably had a bit of an exaggerated effect on the pricing of assets because of the temporary nature of that.”

Dalio, who runs Bridgewater Associates — the largest hedge fund in the world — corrected what he meant by those comments in his post.

“I think the most likely outcome is that this virus will be a larger version of SARS that will have a significant temporary effect but won’t have a big long term influence, so the downward market price moves related to it are probably becoming exaggerated,” he said.

At the height of investor fear around the Wuhan coronavirus, markets across asset classes and countries sold off. US equities have mostly recovered, but other markets such as oil and copper remain in the lurch. Coronavirus has infected 45,000 and killed 1,100 in its spread to more than 20 countries.

The economic effects are already apparent: US companies including Apple, Disney, and Starbucks shuttered their operations in the region while Chinese manufacturing and retail have seen disruptions as well. Multiple economists have warned the virus could undermine growth in China, the world’s second-largest economy. 

In his Tuesday talk, Dalio pointed to wealth and political inequalities as trends he finds concerning for the global economy.