Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said yesterday a stock market correction is "definitely coming" and he is worried about the economy, as US stocks tumbled on fresh concerns about global growth.
Icahn told CNBC in an interview that he still has a lot of money invested in the stock market and has taken measures to protect his portfolio.
"I've been putting on quite a bit of hedges," Icahn said, adding he was shorting the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 .SPX stock index, which was down 1.77%.
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 300 points, or 1.78%.
In November, Icahn said at a Reuters Summit the market could "easily have a big drop," a sentiment he reiterated on CNBC.
"I've been quite concerned for the last year or so, but we still have a hell of a lot of stocks in our portfolio, so ... but I have a lot of hedges on," Icahn said.
Asked about a possible stock market correction, Icahn said, "It's definitely coming."
Stocks had rallied steadily for months, underpinned by central bankers' easy money policy designed to stimulate growth. But "you can't keep an economy up just with the Fed," Icahn said. "The Fed alone can't do it."
Icahn was being interviewed with his son, Brett, and another portfolio manager, David Schechter, about their open letter to Apple urging the company to buy back shares.
The billionaire investor has said Apple's shares could double in value and urged the company's board to buy back more shares using its $133 billion cash pile. "We believe Apple is dramatically undervalued in today's market, and the more shares repurchased now, the more each remaining shareholder will benefit," Icahn said in a letter to Apple's board released yesterday.
Brett Icahn and Schechter said they still own shares of on-demand media company Netflix, another of their big and successful investments.
Icahn senior took a swipe at venture capitalist Marc Andreessen after eBay last week decided to spin off PayPal. Icahn has contended Andreessen, as a board member of eBay, had a conflict of interest when eBay sold off Skype and said: "Andreessen has screwed more people than Casanova."
"I went after him hard for stealing Skype from eBay," Icahn said. "I am no fan of Andreessen," he added, noting his "high squeeky voice that only a dog can hear."
The two investors have a long history of calling each other names.
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