Lee Jae-hyuk / AP U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett waves his hand after he arrived at Daegu airport to inspect Iscar Korea, a subsidiary of Iscar, the Israeli industrial tool manufacturer he purchased last year for US$4 billion, in Daegu, south of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/ Yonhap, Lee Jae-hyuk)

Warren Buffett is now in South Korea, his first-ever visit to that country.  He's there to see the Korean subsidary of Iscar, the Israeli tool maker purchased by Berkshire Hathaway last year.

Unlike Chinese stocks, which he sees as generally too "hot" and unlikely to be good investing hunting ground for him, Buffett says South Korean stock prices are "no higher and probably somewhat less" than stocks in the United States.  That echoes what he told a South Korean business newspaper by email before leaving on his Asian trip.  (WBW Post: Warren Buffett Calls Korean Stocks "Still Attractive" Despite Gains.)

The wire services are also headlining his prediction that we haven't seen the worst of the fallout from bad subprime loans in the U.S. "It will have more of an impact," he told a news conference in Korea. "In the next 6 months, one year, two years the problems in the mortgage market can cause a lot of problems with consumers and hurt buying power in the United States" but "overall the economy will make progress" when you take a longer-term view.

Buffett also repeated his pessimism on the U.S. dollar: ""We still are negative on the dollar relative to most major currencies."  (WBW Post: Warren Buffett to CNBC - U.S. Dollar Not the "Best Currency in the World" to Own Right Now.)

CNBC's Becky Quick is traveling with Buffett on his Asian trip.  Watch for her reports from Korea a little later today on Squawk Box (6a to 9a ET weekdays) and here on Warren Buffett Watch.

Tools:

PrintEmail

Next Post

Previous PostBack to Main Page