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Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett said Monday stocks are a huge bargain if interest rates remain at their low levels.
“I think stocks are ridiculously cheap if you believe … that 3% on the 30-year bonds makes sense,” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box. “
“We are sitting very, very little inflation with the Federal Reserve putting a target at 2% not that long ago. … Since money doesn’t cost anything, you can print lots of money and have full employment and no inflation. … I wouldn’t think you can have these things at these levels — long-term rates, interest rates, budget deficits — have that at a stable situation for a long period of time,” Buffett added.
However, the billionaire investor known as the Oracle of Omaha doubts that low rates will always be the reality.
“The convergence of these factors would seem impossible to me. Generally if I feel something is impossible, it’s going to change over time. I don’t know in what way, but I don’t think we can continue to have these variables in this relationship,” Buffett said.
Despite raising the federal funds rate nine times in three years, the Federal Reserve is still keeping borrowing costs relatively low in a target between 2.25% and 2.5% and has signaled a pause in hiking interest rates this year. Stocks have risen to record highs recently in the low-rate environment.
At the Federal Open Market Committee meeting last week, Fed officials voted to hold interest rates steady, citing a lack of inflation pressure and strong economic growth.
