Speaking from the Oval Office, Mr Obama said they don't know what motivated the "terrible event" in San Bernardino that left 14 people dead and 21 injured.
"It's possible this was terrorist-related, but we don't know," he told reporters. "It's also possible this was workplace-related."
Mr Obama issued a proclamation ordering flags on government buildings, embassies and military installations to be flown at half-mast until Monday to honour the victims.
Husband and wife Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik sprayed up to 75 rounds on Wednesday morning at a social services centre before dying in a gun battle with police.
US authorities have been trying to determine why the young couple targeted the Christmas party attended by Farook's own colleagues in the county health department.
He left the auditorium after an apparent dispute, leaving his coat on his chair, only to return a short time later with Malik.
The next time his colleagues saw the US-born restaurant inspector, he and his wife were dressed in battle gear and wielding weapons.
Police said the shooting spree was clearly pre-planned and the couple had left at the scene of the massacre three pipe bombs designed to be operated by a toy car remote control.
A former colleague of Farook told the Los Angeles Times that his co-workers had recently held a baby shower for him and his wife.
On the morning of the assault, the two dropped off their six-month-old baby with Farook's mother, telling her they were going to a doctor's appointment.
Ten victims remain in hospitals, two in a critical condition.
It is the deadliest shooting in the US since a gunman killed 26 people at a primary school in Connecticut in December 2012.
There have been more than 350 shootings in the US this year, in which four or more people were wounded or killed, according to shootingtracker.com.
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