Warren Buffett: Coronavirus should not affect long-term investors
'Chance to buy'
Investors should welcome falling stockmarkets as a "chance to buy", according to Warren Buffett, who said coronavirus fears should not affect stocks over the longer term.
World markets continued to fall on Tuesday as the coronavirus spread, with the S&P 500 extending losses for the week to 6.3%, while the UK's FTSE 100 fell by 5.6% and Japan's Nikkei 225 fell by 4.1%.
But Buffett told CNBC on Monday investors should not "buy or sell your business based on today's headlines".
"If it gives you a chance to buy something you like and you can buy it even cheaper, you're in good luck," he said. "You can't predict the market by reading the daily newspaper."
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At the time Buffett spoke, US markets had not yet opened for the week but futures were suggesting a fall, which Buffett said was "good for us". "We're a net buyer of stocks over time. Most people are savers, they should want the market to go down. They should want to buy at a lower price.
"We're buying businesses to own for 20 or 30 years. We buy them in whole, we buy them in parts, and we think the 20- and 30-year outlook is not changed by the coronavirus.
"It is scary stuff. I don't think it should affect what you do with stocks, but in terms of the human race it's scary stuff when you have a pandemic."
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The Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO did add that the virus had hit some of the businesses his firm invests in, noting "a very significant percentage of our businesses one way are affected".
He also suggested that while a universal flu vaccine is "a long way off", Bill Gates, who he described as his "own science advisor", was "bullish on the long-term outlook for a universal prevention of it".
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