Warren Buffett: The financial panic is over (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, perhaps the world's most admired investor, said on Thursday the financial panic that gripped the globe last year is a thing of the past, even as the U.S.

Warren Buffett, perhaps the world's most admired investor, said Thursday the financial panic that gripped the globe last year is a thing of the past, even as the U.S. economy's struggles persist.

Warren Buffett’s massive stake in Suncor Energy Inc. could spark investor interest in the battered stocks of Canadian oil sands’ companies, according to analysts. Mr. Buffett had acquired 17.7 million shares of Suncor by June 30, according to a U.S. regulatory filing by his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who oversees stakes in some of the largest U.S. banks, said the nation’s lenders have rebuilt capital to the point where they no longer pose a threat to the economy. “The banks will not get this country in trouble, I guarantee it,” Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said in a phone interview last week. “The capital ratios are huge, the excesses on the asset side have been largely cleared out.”

By Bottom Up Investments: Thursday, we wrote an article suggesting investors purchase Bank of America because, among other reasons, Warren Buffett had agreed to invest in the Company. Most of the pushback we received centered on the fact that Buffett was seemingly raking BAC over the coals on the deal.

US investor Warren Buffett has raised his holding in Munich Re, the world's leading re-insurance company, a statement to financial markets said on Thursday.Buffett now owns directly or indirectly more than five percent of the voting rights in Munich Re, after taking options on 1.945 percent of its capital in addition to a previous stake of 3.08 percent.Shares in the re-insurance group gained 1.05 percent to 111 euros in morning trading at Frankfurt's DAX 30 stock exchange, which was up by 1.18 percent overall.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have been buddies for more than two decades. When you've been friends that long, you're going to relax and have fun whenever you get together, right?