Investor Warren Buffett sold everything he owned in airline stock – Observer



[ad_1]

“Never bet against the United States, because basically nothing can stop the country” in the long term, he said Warren buffett, legendary investor known as the Oracle of Omaha. Neither the Civil War, nor the World Wars, nor the Great Depression, nor the financial crisis; nor will it be the new coronavirus that can permanently shake the country’s progress. But it has already shaken up the air transport industry, so Buffett sold everything he had (and it was no small feat).

Warren Buffett’s optimistic remarks came at his company’s annual general meeting – Berkshire Hathaway, which is basically Buffett’s investment vehicle. Admittedly, the economy will be in recession and unemployment figures are historically bad, but Warren Buffett recalls that for every dollar he could have invested when he finished college in the 1950s, he would have 100 today.

The best bet for investors at the moment is to buy diversified shares on the US stock market, that is, through the benchmark S & P500 index. Despite all the bad news on the economic front, the index had a historically positive month, recovering almost 20% after losses in March. Buffett admits that the coming months will continue to bring moments of volatility, but in the long run nothing shakes the positive view of the investor who is one of the richest men in the world.

The exception to Buffett’s optimism is the air transport sector. There, Berkshire Hathaway disposed of all the shares it held in the four (North American) airlines in which it had a stake in the stock exchange. And they weren’t small bets: Berkshire owned 11% of Delta Air Lines, 10% of American Airlines and Southwest, and 9% of United Airlines.

“The world has changed” for these companies, acknowledged Warren Buffett, who is now 89 years old. Contrary to what happened during the 2008 financial crisis, in which the fall in bank stocks was used as an opportunity for Buffett to strengthen his exposure to banks like Wells Fargo, this time Buffett no longer found “attractive opportunities” in the sector. penalized by the pandemic.

“We made a decision regarding the airline’s business. We get money out of there, even though we made significant losses doing it, ”Warren Buffett confirmed. “We are not going to invest in a company that will do nothing but consume money in the near future,” said the Berkshire leader.

[ad_2]