Warren Buffett said he's not at all discouraged that the stock market is under pressure today due to the conflict in Ukraine.
In a live interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box,"
Buffett said, "When I got up this morning, I actually looked at a stock on the computer (for) the trades in London (of a stock) that we're buying, and it's down and I felt good." He would only acknowledge it is an "English" stock.
"We were buying it on Friday, but it's cheaper this morning and that's good news." Will he buy more? "Absolutely."
Buffett said that would be true even if he knew Ukraine would turn into a major conflict.
"You're going to invest your money in something over time. The one thing you can be quite sure of, is
if we went into some kind of very major war, the value of money would go down. That's happened in virtually every war I'm aware of.
The last thing you'd want to do is hold money during a war. You might want to own a farm, you might want to own an apartment house, you might want to own securities.
During World War II the stock market advanced."
Buffett recalled that he bought his first stock in 1942, just after Pearl Harbor, when the macro situation didn't look very good, either.
Buffett also rejected the idea the U.S. stock market is "rigged." He said he doesn't think of the stock market as a market at all. To him, it represents "American business." He argued the market's sheer size gives him comfort, "It's pretty hard to rig 20 trillion-plus dollars."
Echoing a theme from his letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders released Saturday, Buffett said nonprofessionals don't need to be experts to do well with stocks. He recommends they buy a Vanguard S&P 500 stock index fund, which mirrors the overall market's performance.
An index fund keeps costs low, which Buffett said is tremendously important when investing, because fees act like a tax on returns.
Buffett said that in his will he recommends that 90 percent of the money for his wife should go into an index fund. Why not Berkshire stock? "That would be fine, too," he replied, but he doesn't like "touting" it.
more:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101459508 
Warren Buffett: Ukraine won't stop my stock buying
In a live interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Buffett said, "When I got up this morning, I actually looked at a stock on the computer (for) the trades in London (of a stock) that we're buying, and it's down and I felt good." He would only acknowledge it is an "English" stock.
"We were buying it on Friday, but it's cheaper this morning and that's good news." Will he buy more? "Absolutely."
Buffett said that would be true even if he knew Ukraine would turn into a major conflict.
"You're going to invest your money in something over time. The one thing you can be quite sure of, is if we went into some kind of very major war, the value of money would go down. That's happened in virtually every war I'm aware of. The last thing you'd want to do is hold money during a war. You might want to own a farm, you might want to own an apartment house, you might want to own securities. During World War II the stock market advanced."
Buffett recalled that he bought his first stock in 1942, just after Pearl Harbor, when the macro situation didn't look very good, either.
Buffett also rejected the idea the U.S. stock market is "rigged." He said he doesn't think of the stock market as a market at all. To him, it represents "American business." He argued the market's sheer size gives him comfort, "It's pretty hard to rig 20 trillion-plus dollars."
Echoing a theme from his letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders released Saturday, Buffett said nonprofessionals don't need to be experts to do well with stocks. He recommends they buy a Vanguard S&P 500 stock index fund, which mirrors the overall market's performance.
An index fund keeps costs low, which Buffett said is tremendously important when investing, because fees act like a tax on returns.
Buffett said that in his will he recommends that 90 percent of the money for his wife should go into an index fund. Why not Berkshire stock? "That would be fine, too," he replied, but he doesn't like "touting" it.
more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101459508