Billionaire investor Marc Lasry says the Fed will raise rates more slowly because of the Ukraine conflict

• Billionaire investor Marc Lasry said he thinks the Fed will raise rates more slowly due to the Ukraine conflict.
• He said he thinks the central bank will hike interest rates four or five times this year, despite markets expecting seven increases.

Billionaire investor Marc Lasry has predicted the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates more slowly than previously expected due to the economic uncertainty created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Lasry, co-founder and CEO of Avenue Capital, which has $12 billion under management, told CNBC Tuesday he expects the Fed to raise interest rates four or five times this year, having previously expected five or more rate hikes.

The Fed finishes its policy meeting Wednesday and is widely expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points (0.25 percentage point) from the current level of next to zero. The move is expected to kick off a rate-hiking cycle as the Fed tries to get a grip on the strongest inflation in 40 years.

The Federal Open Market Committee will also release its latest "dot plot", in which officials lay out their expectations for where interest rates will be over the next three years.

Lasry, who co-owns the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, said the Fed is likely to be more cautious than it would have been before the Ukraine conflict broke out.

"I think today with what's happening to Ukraine and what's going on around the world and where oil is, you've got to be a little bit more careful," he said.

"The one thing you don't want is a recession," Lasry told CNBC's "Overtime". "So I think the Fed is gonna be kind of slow."

Lasry's view is far from universally shared in the market, however.

Many strategists dialed down their expectations for the number of Fed hikes this year when war broke out, only to ratchet them back up again when oil prices soared above $100, raising the prospect of even stronger inflation.

Market pricing suggests traders currently think the Fed is most likely to carry out seven 25 basis point interest-rate increases in 2022.

Lasry said he was comfortable investing in the market right now, despite the wild ride stocks and other assets have been on as a result of uncertainty about Fed policy and the Ukraine conflict.

"We have long-term money," he said. "So we're happy to invest in an environment like this, because we still believe at the end of the day, you're going to have positive GDP."

Read more: Goldman Sachs warns that the ongoing Ukraine crisis could trigger a global economic downturn — and identifies the 3 sectors that will be worst affected by wartime supply shocks