Mnuchin says coronavirus sell-off will be great opportunity for long-term investors like '87 crash

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Friday the market sell-off will be short-lived and looks like a compelling opportunity for investors looking to buy equities at a discount.

"This is a short-term issue. It may be a couple of months but we're going to get through this and the economy will be stronger than ever," the secretary said on " Squawk on the Street."

"I look back at people who bought stocks after the crash in 1987, people who bought stocks after the financial crisis. For long-term investors, this will be a great investment opportunity."

The Treasury secretary's comments came just ahead of the market's open after the worst day on Wall Street since 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 suffered their worst one-day hits in more than 30 years on Thursday as investor sentiment over the coronavirus pandemic deteriorated from uncertainty to panic.

Both major U.S. stock indexes ended their historic, 11-year bull market runs this week and are more than 20% below their respective record highs in bear markets.

But Mnuchin said the current sell-off isn't at all like the systemic slowdown that occurred during the financial crisis 12 years ago. Instead, he compared it to short, intense sell-offs like the "Black Monday" crash in 1987, when Mnuchin was a trader.

"This is not like the financial crisis, where people don't know when this will end: We will get through this," Mnuchin added. "By the end of the year, I think you can expect we're going to have a big rebound in economic activity."

The Dow and S&P 500 bounced 5.5% shortly after the opening bell on Friday, paring some of the steep losses incurred over the last month.