GWS 2025: Howard Marks on India's potential, Trump impact, value investments & more | Top quotes

Billionaire investor Howard Marks on Friday shared his perspective on the global business environment, current investment trends and the future of emerging economies like India during his wide-ranging opening address at the Moneycontrol Global Wealth Summit 2025.

Speaking at the event, Marks, who is the co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, said that people will return to "value investing" and asserted that Artificial Intelligence is expected to change the world.

Here are the top quotes from his address:

On market cycles and value investing:

"I think people will return to value stocks."

On India

"India has incredible opportunities. Incredibly constructive government."

"India has benefitted from the fact that people are less positive on China"

"I'm optimistic on India"

"You don't want to miss out on India of the next ten years"

On assessing markets:

"It's dangerous when you assess the appropriateness of the markets based on one factor, because there are many factors that matter."

On valuations and company superiority:

"How much superiority is priced into companies today? Is the increase in superiority and increase in valuations appropriate for each other?"

On the impact of Covid pandemic:

"The pandemic didn't really last and have a profound effect on the markets. Optimism has prevailed for 16 years. That's a big part why growth stocks have done so well. But there will come a time for value. I think people will return to value stocks."

On growth vs. value investing:

"People suggest growth stocks are stocks with high rates of growth in the future, while value stocks are modest prices, focused on the present. If you think of it that way, if you believe growth investing is future-oriented, it is more widely accepted more during optimistic times. But when people are more cautious, they look for value in the here and now."

On long-term investments:

"If you're looking at a business to hold for the long term, you want to make sure the price is reasonable. That makes sense. This morphed into value investing, with a capital theme. This turned into disregard for the future, and discounted valuations."

On market sentiment and investment risks:

"I don't see massive psychological excesses today. Recent events have reduced enthusiasm further. Certainly not time for unusual investments."

On leverage and market downturns:

"People take leverage during good times, but forget that it can magnify losses during bad times. This is something people forget from generation to generation."

On historical perspective:

"Today isn't history yet. Years from now, when today becomes history, then we'll learn from that."

On US interest rates and economy:

"I think US rates are within the band of normalcy, can stay there. The US economy is functioning well, it is not booming, so it doesn't necessitate a bust. It's performing well. Today's rates are appropriate for that."

On AI and market bubbles:

"How we have another new thing: AI. It is expected to change the world, which it could."

"Most bubbles are, by necessity, built around something new. There's no precedent limiting the imagination to fire. In 1999, we had the internet, which changed the world."

On Donald Trump’s economic policies:

"Donald Trump will try very hard to make business do well, to make American businesses do well. His tariffs could have an inflationary impact ... Ironically, we have a highly pro business president who has introduced a lot of uncertainties."
 On China:

"I think China has great potential: good human resources, highly motivated, good education. But it has problems of declining population."

On being born in the 21st century:

"Today you don't have to be born a white male in America to achieve success. It is not dependent on your gender, race or vocation."

"Warren Buffett and mine lottery was to be born as a white male in America in the mid 20th century."

The Moneycontrol Global Wealth Summit 2025 is a flagship, premier platform that brings together leading Indian and global investors, titans of Indian business, policy-makers and other important mover and shakers in the financial market ecosystem to decode the puzzle of wealth creation in India.