Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller says the stock market's risk-reward is the worst he's ever seen — and downplays the Fed's ability to rescue the economy

• Legendary investor Stanley Druckenmiller said that risk-reward for equity is the worst he's seen in his career at a Tuesday webcast to members of The Economic Club of New York.
• "The consensus out there seems to be: 'Don't worry, the Fed has your back,'" said Druckenmiller. "There's only one problem with that: Our analysis says it's not true."
• He also worries that a V-shaped recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is "a fantasy."
• Read more on Business Insider.

Stanley Druckenmiller, the legendary investor and former George Soros chief strategist, said that the stock market is currently overvalued in a Tuesday webcast to members of The Economic Club of New York.

"The risk-reward for equity is maybe as bad as I've seen it in my career," Druckenmiller said, according to the Economic Club's Twitter account. "The wild card here is the Fed can always step up their (asset) purchases."

He also worries that the government's stimulus programs won't be enough to solve the economic problems arising from the coronavirus pandemic and sweeping lockdowns to curb the spread of the disease.

"The consensus out there seems to be: 'Don't worry, the Fed has your back,'" said Druckenmiller. "There's only one problem with that: Our analysis says it's not true."

Instead, markets seem to be too high considering the uncertainty of the environment and likely bankruptcies looming on the horizon, according to Druckenmiller.

"I pray I'm wrong on this, but I just think that the V-out is a fantasy," he said, referring to a V-shaped economic recovery, according to Bloomberg.

Stocks have rebounded after the fastest plunge ever into bear-market territory in March, spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is now back in positive territory for the year, and the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 are not far.

Read more: MORGAN STANLEY: Buy these 20 stocks built to profit from a mounting inflation comeback that will alter the investing landscape

The market momentum has come as the Federal Reserve unleashed unprecedented action in trillions of dollars of stimulus funds. But that won't help the economy recover, according to Druckenmiller.

"It was basically a combination of transfer payments to individuals, basically paying them more not to work than to work," he said. "And in addition to that, it was a bunch of payments to zombie companies to keep them alive."

Druckenmiller also said he thinks markets are overreacting to optimism around drugs such as Gilead's remdesivir. "I don't see why anybody would change their behavior because there's a viral drug out there," he said.

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