21
May
Buffett, Soros Refute 'Credit Crunch Over' Mantra: Market Pays Heed
It ain't over til it's over.
That was the message from investing legends Warren Buffett and George Soros yesterday, and the market is taking heed today.
Soros was particularly concerned about inflation, which is front and center today as crude prices surge toward $130 and core PPI was higher than expected.
While less dramatic than the uber-skeptical Soros, Buffett was certainly direct in his assessment that the credit crunch is not over, contrary to popular belief on Wall Street. "I don't think the effects of the credit crunch are far from over at all," Buffett said during a presentation in Europe, according to wire reports. "I think there will be rippling secondary, tertiary effects."
Those "second and tertiary" effects including the fallout from a Citigroup hedge fund, whose woeful performance is hurting investors such as Fifth Third Bancorp and Wachovia, The WSJ reports.
Separate but related, The Journal also reports on the problems in the auto industry, while retailers Home Depot, Staples, and Saks each provided some cautious guidance.
(Yahoo Finance Tech Ticker 20 May 2008)
1 Comments Add Comment
Hate to agree with Soros,
Hate to agree with Soros, but, this time I think he's probably right. The U.S. still has that big hammer hanging over its head--the sub-prime mess, where bulk of the ARM resets haven't triggered yet. Topped off with $900 + gold and $130 oil, this is a tremendous triple whammy. The price of gold, alone, attests to the dollar's worth, its abilitly to withstand the coming onslaught.