Widely-followed value investor Bill Nygren said Thursday the market turmoil brought on by the Trump administration’s aggressive tariffs creates an “unusual” opportunity for bargain-hunting. “I don’t think the tariff news is welcome news for investors because of the uncertainty it creates, but at Oakmark, we always try to look out long term,” Nygren said on CNBC’s ” Squawk Box .” “We try to estimate what a company might be worth five to seven years from now, and then we look for opportunities to buy at a large discount to that. And I think today’s market does give us that kind of opportunity.” Nygren, portfolio manager at Oakmark Funds for 40 years, believes tariffs could fuel inflation and hinder economic growth. President Donald Trump slapped big reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world Wednesday evening, raising the risks of a global trade war that could hit the already sputtering U.S. economy. Stocks cratered in response to Trump’s sweeping duties. At the Thursday session low, the S & P 500 tumbled as much as 4.06%, on track for its worst single day since September 2022. “It’s a tax increase. Those are inflationary. Those are anti-growth, as any other tax increase would be,” Nygren said. “With the market at about 20 times earnings, we’ve got an unusual opportunity to buy companies at single digits that are just kind of left behind, as the Mag 7 had sucked most of the oxygen out of the room.” Nygren, who began at Oakmark parent Harris Associates in 1982, said he’s buying beaten-down stocks that already have negative expectations baked in, such as Delta Air Lines , Charter Communications and Citigroup . Nygren said Delta is trading less than 7 times earnings, while Charter is widely misunderstood as a video company when it’s really an internet provider trading at 8 times expected earnings. Citigroup is going through a big transformation under CEO Jane Fraser, and trades at just 7 times forward earnings, Nygren noted. C 1Y mountain Citigroup shares over the past year. “I think if you buy companies like that, they’re already incorporating pretty negative expectations, and it would be unlikely that, if you buy today and hold that for a longer period, that you don’t come out reasonably well,” Nygren said.
