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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Warren Buffet is Not Buying
Aired March 04, 2003 - 07:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Economic news right now. The oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet, apparently is following the rule that cash is king.
Andy Serwer has that and more right now minding our business for us.
How are you?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Bill. I'm doing just fine.
HEMMER: First the action of yesterday...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Yes, we started off the first trading day of March, and I'm sorry to say on a sour note. Stocks were down.
Let's check out the numbers here. The Dow was off 53, the Nasdaq and the S&P were also down. Some weak economic numbers, Bill. Factory orders not as robust as they anticipated, personal spending not as robust as anticipated. I'm also sorry to report that futures are weak again this morning.
HEMMER: Do you have any good news this morning?
SERWER: No, I don't. I don't have any good news this morning.
HEMMER: At least you're honest.
SERWER: I want to talk a little bit about Warren Buffet. You mentioned the oracle of Omaha, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, that conglomerate. Of course, he is the world's greatest investor. I don't think there is any question about that.
HEMMER: Right.
SERWER: His annual letter to shareholders -- there's Warren. And just, if I may say so, a very nice guy, a terrific guy and very smart. Anyway, he has his annual letter to shareholders. It comes out on his Web site on March 8. We got a preview of it, though, on "Fortune's" Web site today. You can go there and check it out.
He warns and says, "Despite three years of stock market declines, of falling prices, which have significantly improved the attractiveness of stocks" -- in other words, they're cheaper than they used to be -- "we still find that very few are even mildly interesting to us."
HEMMER: Wow!
SERWER: In other words, stocks have gone down, they're not cheap enough yet. He talks about the great bubble, and says, "Unfortunately, the hangover" -- which is what we're in right now -- "may prove to be proportional to the binge." You know, you've got to look at this thing, Bill, and say, it's stone cold for the economy.
HEMMER: Wow!
SERWER: And you know why? Because this guy is right...
HEMMER: Yes.
SERWER: ... almost every time.
HEMMER: Yes, and had we all listened to him in the late '90s and not followed that tech boom, we would have been a lot better off right now.
SERWER: Yes, you got that right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: OK, see you.
HEMMER: See you next hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired March 4, 2003 - 07:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Economic news right now. The oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet, apparently is following the rule that cash is king.
Andy Serwer has that and more right now minding our business for us.
How are you?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you, Bill. I'm doing just fine.
HEMMER: First the action of yesterday...
(CROSSTALK)
SERWER: Yes, we started off the first trading day of March, and I'm sorry to say on a sour note. Stocks were down.
Let's check out the numbers here. The Dow was off 53, the Nasdaq and the S&P were also down. Some weak economic numbers, Bill. Factory orders not as robust as they anticipated, personal spending not as robust as anticipated. I'm also sorry to report that futures are weak again this morning.
HEMMER: Do you have any good news this morning?
SERWER: No, I don't. I don't have any good news this morning.
HEMMER: At least you're honest.
SERWER: I want to talk a little bit about Warren Buffet. You mentioned the oracle of Omaha, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, that conglomerate. Of course, he is the world's greatest investor. I don't think there is any question about that.
HEMMER: Right.
SERWER: His annual letter to shareholders -- there's Warren. And just, if I may say so, a very nice guy, a terrific guy and very smart. Anyway, he has his annual letter to shareholders. It comes out on his Web site on March 8. We got a preview of it, though, on "Fortune's" Web site today. You can go there and check it out.
He warns and says, "Despite three years of stock market declines, of falling prices, which have significantly improved the attractiveness of stocks" -- in other words, they're cheaper than they used to be -- "we still find that very few are even mildly interesting to us."
HEMMER: Wow!
SERWER: In other words, stocks have gone down, they're not cheap enough yet. He talks about the great bubble, and says, "Unfortunately, the hangover" -- which is what we're in right now -- "may prove to be proportional to the binge." You know, you've got to look at this thing, Bill, and say, it's stone cold for the economy.
HEMMER: Wow!
SERWER: And you know why? Because this guy is right...
HEMMER: Yes.
SERWER: ... almost every time.
HEMMER: Yes, and had we all listened to him in the late '90s and not followed that tech boom, we would have been a lot better off right now.
SERWER: Yes, you got that right.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: OK, see you.
HEMMER: See you next hour.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
