Becky Quick: Let’s talk about the fact that the market fell nearly 800 points this morning.

Warren Buffett: Yes.

Becky Quick: Do you care?

Warren Buffett: Well, no, it’s actually good for us.

I mean, we’re a net buyer of stocks over time. Like being a net purchaser of food, I expect to buy food for the rest of my life, and I expect the price of food to go down tomorrow.

So when stocks go down, no, we buy overall. You know, who wouldn’t rather buy at a lower price than a higher price?

People are really weird about this. I mean they – most people, most of the audience are savers, which means they’re going to be net buyers and they should want the stock market to go down. They should want to buy at a lower price.

But they have a feeling that they’ll feel better when the stock goes up.

2) 6:03 a.m. Eastern Time

Becky Quick: When you see futures down about 818 points this morning, I think probably the first thing viewers want to hear is your thoughts on what’s going on with the coronavirus, is that a cause for panic, and are you concerned about it?

Warren Buffett: Well, I don’t know that I have anything in particular on my mind other than the news about coronavirus…

If you buy a business, the stock is the business – in fact, people are better off if they say I bought a business today instead of the stock because it gives a different perspective – so presumably if you buy a farm, if you buy an apartment, if you buy a business, you’re going to own it for 10, 20 or 30 years.

The real question is – has the 10- or 20-year outlook for American business changed in the last 24 hours or 48 hours?

We will — you’ll notice that many of the businesses we own — part-own — American Express, we’ve owned it for 20 years; Coca-Cola, we’ve owned it for 40 years — but those are our businesses. And you won’t buy or sell your business based on today’s headlines.

3) 6:05 AM Eastern Time

Becky Quick: But if I think I can buy something for maybe 10% cheaper, maybe even more, if I wait a week or a month, maybe that’s what I get for sitting around and waiting.

Warren Buffett: Well, if you think you already have it – if you’re right, you’ll be very rich (laughs). All you have to do is continue buying in 10-day intervals and continue with the 10-day forecast.

If I knew what the market was going to do, obviously—

But you don’t know – I don’t think anyone knows what the market is going to do.

I think you do know if you’re making a smart purchase at a given price.

4) 6:07 AM ET

Warren Buffett: You certainly can’t predict the market by reading the daily newspapers, that’s for sure.

You really can’t – you certainly can’t predict the market by taking my word for it.

5) 6:46 a.m. ET

Becky Quick: For those of you who are just waking up, they’re watching the show and they want to know what you think about the sell-off this morning – seeing the Dow down 700, 800 points in the morning – what’s your reaction when you see something like this?

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, my reaction is I like buying stocks. So, I don’t want to be mean to other people, but I like that – if they want to sell it to me cheaper, I prefer it. (laugh)

So, if this is about a 3% or so decline – I don’t know how many 3% declines I’ve experienced in my life, but there’s been a lot.

I can’t think of one that you shouldn’t buy, you know, basically.

This doesn’t mean the stock will go up or down next week, next month, or next year.

But if anything – if you want to own an American business, you have the opportunity to buy it 3% cheaper.

Becky Quick: Does this mean Berkshire will buy shares today?

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, we’re certainly not selling. Yes, we can – sure, we can buy something easily.

6) 8:02 a.m. ET

Becky Quick: Warren, we talked about the coronavirus this morning, but now there are people across the country waking up and tuning in at this time, so maybe we should talk about it again.

With the market down 750 points…how do you wake up and read this and think about it?

Warren Buffett: I don’t think – it has no impact on our investment. I mean, there’s always some news every day, good or bad.

In fact, if you go back and read all the newspapers of the past 50 years, probably most of them (the headlines) tend to be terrible.

But if you look at what’s going on with the economy, most of what’s going on is pretty good. I mean, incredible things are going to happen over time.

So if someone comes and tells me that global growth is going to be down 1% instead of one-tenth of a percent, if I like the business and I like the price, I’m still going to buy the stock — and I prefer today’s price to last Friday’s price.

7) 8:59 AM ET

Becky Quick: Before we let you go, let’s go back to futures this morning again, as the Dow is currently expected to open down about 100 points, or 830 points. There was renewed weakness amid concerns over the coronavirus and its implications.

What is your mindset today when you go out and look at the stock market and decide what to do?

Warren Buffett: We buy businesses with a 20 or 30-year holding period. We buy the whole thing, we buy the parts. When we buy them in part, they are called stocks.

We don’t think the 20- and 30-year outlook has changed as a result of coronavirus.