As Warren Buffett was appearing live on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, February 24, 2020, futures were pointing to a drop of 3% for the stock market when it opened due to fears of a coronavirus pandemic.
Buffett, however, wasn’t worried. He was, in fact, happy that stock prices would be going down.
BECKY QUICK: Let’s talk a little bit about the fact that the market’s down almost 800 points this morning.
WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah.
BECKY QUICK: Concern for you?
WARREN BUFFETT: Well no, that’s good for us actually.
I mean we’re a net buyer of stocks over time. And just like being a net buyer of food, I expect to buy food the rest of my life, and I hope that food goes down in price tomorrow.
So, when stocks are down, no, we’re going to be buying, on balance. And who wouldn’t rather buy, you know, at a lower price than a higher price?
People are really strange on that. I mean they — most people, most of your listeners are savers and that means they’ll be net buyers and they should want the stock market to go down. They should want to buy at a lower price.
But they got that feeling that they just feel better when stocks are going up.
2) 6:03 AM ET
BECKY QUICK: When you’re looking at the futures down about 818 points this morning, I think probably the first thing viewers want to hear from you are your thoughts on what’s happening with the coronavirus, if this is a reason to panic, and if you are worried about this?
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, I don’t know I have any special thoughts beyond the news on the coronavirus…
If you’re buying a business, and that’s what stocks are, businesses — in fact, people will be better off if they say I bought a business today not a stock today, because that gives a different perspective on it — then presumably if you buy a farm, if you buy an apartment house, if you buy a business, you’re going to own it for 10 or 20 or 30 years.
And the real question is this — has the 10-year or 20-year outlook for American businesses changed in the last 24 hours or 48 hours?
And we’re going to — you’ll notice many of the businesses we own — partially own — American Express, we’ve owned it for 20 years; Coca-Cola, we’ve owned it for 40 years — but those our businesses. And you don’t buy or sell your business based on today’s headlines.
3) 6:05 AM ET
BECKY QUICK: But if I think that I can buy something for potentially 10% cheaper, maybe more than that, if I wait a week or a month, maybe that’s what I’m sitting around waiting for.
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, if you think that you’ve got — you’re going to get fabulously rich if you’re right (LAUGHS). All you have to do is just keep buying in 10-day intervals and keep making your 10-day prediction.
If I knew what the market was going to do, obviously —
But you don’t — I don’t think anybody knows what the market’s going to do.
I think you do know whether you’re making an intelligent purchase at a given price.
4) 6:07 AM ET
WARREN BUFFETT: You certainly can’t predict the market by reading the daily newspaper, that’s for sure.
And you really can’t — you certainly can’t predict the market by listening to me.
5) 6:46 AM ET
BECKY QUICK: For people who are just waking up, they’re tuning in and they want to know what you think about this sell-off this morning — to see the Dow down 700, 800 points in the morning — what’s your reaction when you see something like that?
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, my reaction is that I like to buy stocks. So, I don’t wish ill on anybody else, but I like that — if they want to sell them to me cheaper, I prefer it. (LAUGHS)
So, if that’s a, you know, roughly, 3% decline or thereabouts — I don’t know how many 3% declines I’ve had in my lifetime, but there have been a lot of them.
And I can’t think of one that you shouldn’t have bought on, you know, basically.
That doesn’t mean stocks are going to go up or down next week or next month or next year.
But if there’s something — if you like to own American businesses, you’re getting a chance to buy at 3% cheaper.
BECKY QUICK: Does that mean Berkshire will be buying stocks today?
WARREN BUFFETT: It’s — well, we certainly won’t be selling. And, yeah, we may — we could easily be buying something, sure.
6) 8:02 AM ET
BECKY QUICK: Warren, we’ve talked this morning about the coronavirus, but there are people who are waking up across the country now, kind of tuning in at this hour, so maybe we should address this again.
With the markets indicated down 750 points … how do you kind of wake up and read this and think through it?
WARREN BUFFETT: I don’t think — it makes no difference in our investments. I mean, there’s always going to be some news, good or bad, every day.
In fact, if you go back and read all the papers for the last 50 years, probably most of it — headlines — tends to be bad.
But if you look at what happens to the economy, most of the things that happen are extremely good. I mean, it’s incredible what will happen over time.
So, if somebody came and told me that the global growth rate was going to be down 1% instead of a tenth of a percent, I’d still buy stocks if I felt like the business and I like the price at which — and I like the price better today than I liked it last Friday.
7) 8:59 AM ET
BECKY QUICK: Before we let you go, let’s just go back to the futures again this morning because right now the Dow is indicated to open down about a hundred — or 830 points. Weakness again on concerns about coronavirus and what that means.
What’s your mentality today as you kind of go out and look at the stock market and decide what you’re going to do?
WARREN BUFFETT: We’re buying businesses to own for 20 or 30 years. We buy them in whole, we buy them in part. They’re called stocks when we buy them in part.
And we think the 20 and 30-year outlook has not changed by coronavirus.