Billionaire Bill Ackman says he recently made a $2.5 billion bet that the US economy will bounce back quickly from coronavirus

• Bill Ackman said in a Monday interview with Bloomberg TV that he recently bet $2.5 billion that the US economy will recover quickly from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.
• The Pershing Square Capital Management leader said he's removed all hedges that he had in place to offset the coronavirus pandemic, which were short positions in the credit market, and bought stocks.
• He sees the US making progress in its efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic. "We are all long, no shorts, betting on the country," he said.
• Read more on Business Insider.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who leads Pershing Square Capital Management, said in a Monday interview with Bloomberg TV that he recently bet $2.5 billion that the US economy will recover quickly from the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ackman said that he's removed all hedges that he had in place to offset the coronavirus pandemic, which were short positions in the credit market. In the last week and a half, he's taken the money from those hedges - roughly $2.5 billion, he said - and increased his position in a number of equities including Starbucks, Agilent, Lowe's, and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

He made the bets because he sees the US making progress in its efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic. "We are all long, no shorts, betting on the country," he said, adding that the portfolio still has some cash.

"We think the country is getting to the right place on this issue," he told Bloomberg TV. "I feel like the Trump administration has upped its game."

Ackman also called for a 30-day federal shutdown over the coronavirus pandemic as opposed to letting individual states follow different plans. In the last few weeks, at least nine states have ordered lockdowns in an effort to keep people at home and curb the spread of the virus.

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Still, Ackman said the federal government should act. "Everyone does better in the event that this period is shorter than longer," he said.

Ackman's Monday statements were much more optimistic than comments he made in an interview with CNBC last week, where he warned that "hell is coming," and cautioned that the US could go through a "Depression-era period."

The investor said that he was encouraged after a call he had last week with a company working on a test for the virus. With more prevalent testing that allows healthy individuals to return to work, he thinks that the US could be poised for "a remarkable snapback."

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