Berkshire Hathaway piles into US stocks despite market dip
BERKSHIRE Hathaway is adding to its shareholdings of two US companies amid a market dip, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said yesterday.
Buffett, Berkshire’s controlling shareholder, also forecast record results this year for Berkshire’s largest non-insurance businesses, among them railroad BNSF and utility MidAmerican.
Berkshire class B shares led the insurance sector to close 1.9 per cent higher at $82.47 yesterday.
In an interview with CNBC from just outside his conglomerate’s home base in Omaha, Nebraska, he dismissed the dip in European shares after weekend elections in France and Greece.
“It’s going to be very, very difficult to resolve their problems,” he said of the Eurozone countries, but he insisted they would do so eventually.
Buffett declined to identify the two portfolio stocks Berkshire was purchasing more of. He said Berkshire spent $60m buying stocks last Friday and would buy more yesterday. It was not clear if the $60m was spent on just two stocks.
Over the weekend, Berkshire held its annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, a festival that draws nearly 40,000 people for an hours-long question-and-answer session with Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger.
It was during that session that Buffett revealed he had very nearly made an acquisition of more than $22bn recently.