UMB Scout International Fund's Jim Moffett appears as a guest on CNBC's Squawk on the Street

June 26, 2008

Time:	8:25 AM CT
Station:	CNBC
Location:	National Cable
Program:	Squawk on the Street

Haines: From gyrating currencies to economic and political uncertainty, investing in foreign markets can be ripe with risk. But our next guest is a five-star manager whose foreign-blend fund has more than four billion dollars in assets under management. It is up eighteen percent over the past five years.

James Moffett, lead portfolio manager of the UMB Scout International Fund; also chairman of Scout Investment Advisors, chief equity strategist with UMB Bank. James, thank you very much for being with us.

James Moffett, Chief Equity Strategist, UMB Bank, N.A., and Chairman, Scout Investment Advisors, Inc.: Happy to be here, Mark.

Haines: Okay. You, what is a "blend fund"?

Moffett: Well, it means we invest in both growth and value in about equal amounts. Sometimes we go over the growth side of the line, but in this environment, where so much of the action is in materials and energy-things like that, we are a balanced fund, at this point...

Haines: Okay.

Moffett: ...a blend.

Haines: Now, according to my notes, in general, you typically invest in larger mid-caps or smaller largecaps, staying away from the extremes.

Moffett: Right.

Haines: ...right now, you like Latin America, huh?

Moffett:We like Latin America in general; Brazil and Chile in particular. We find them as beneficiaries of the worldwide raw materials boom and this is driving their economies. We think they're a good place to be.

Haines: Do you hedge away the currency?

Moffett: No. We do no hedging and, fortunately the Real's been going our way.

Haines: The Mexican peso...?

Moffett: ...you know, we don't hedge it.

Haines: ...well, the Mexican peso has not, has it?

Moffett: No. We just don't hedge them; that's part of our strategy.

Haines: Okay. So, within Brazil, you've picked one of my favorites, a beer company. Why?

Moffett: Well, you know, if you're selling beer on the equator and you've got over a fifty-percent market share, you outta be making good money on it. They're also part of InBev; that's in turn trying to buy Budweiser. They understand what market dominance is all about.

Haines: And in technology, you like Canon?

Moffett: We like Canon. We think of them as making cameras but they make a lot of other things; they make copiers, they make equipment for making semiconductors. We view them as just a broadbased Japanese technology play, and relatively, we like Japan. And, if you look at the numbers, by the way, Japan has been one of the best, markets of the year, while nobody's been watching.

Haines: All right. James, we're outta time. Thank you very much, though; appreciate your time.

Moffett: Okay, good to talk to you.