Fifteen school children have won a prize that would make a lot of grown-ups envious — shares in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. No, they didn’t get the $125,000-plus class A shares (BRKA, Fortune 500) of Berkshire. But the children, ages 7 to 16, each got 10 lower-priced class B shares (BRKB) of Berkshire for being finalists in Buffett’s “Grow Your Own Business Challenge,” according to an SEC filing. At Thursday’s closing price, the shares are worth $835.80.
Warren Buffett says US economy slowed in last 2 months (IndiaTimes)
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Thursday that U.S. economic growth has slowed in the last two months as fears about Europe’s debt woes mounted. Buffett’s comments during an interview Thursday on the cable TV network CNBC contrast with what he has been saying for a couple of years. Buffett has said the economy was gradually improving since the fall of 2009 in every area except businesses related to housing.
CNBC Transcript: Warren Buffett, Alan Simpson, & Erskine Bowles On Fixing the Debt Problem (CNBC)
We are in Sun Valley, as you mentioned, and we are joined by our dream lineup this morning: Warren Buffett, who’s been with us for the last half hour and joining us and sitting down with us right now are former Senator Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the former chief of— chief of staff for President Clinton. These are two gentlemen we have been hoping to get on the program for an incredibly long time— because of Simpson/Bowles, Bowles/Simpson and everything that’s happening with the fiscal cliff. So gentlemen, we wanna thank you very much for agreeing to sit down with us this morning.
Warren Buffett remains confident in JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (IndiaTimes)
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he remains confident in the abilities of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, a day before the bank is set to report its latest earnings results and shed more light on its loss on a bad trade. JPMorgan initially estimated that its loss was $2 billion when it disclosed the trade in May, although Dimon said then that the loss could grow.
Warren Buffett: Libor Scandal Involves ‘The Whole World’ (HuffingtonPost)
Everyone should be paying attention to the Libor scandal, at least according to Warren Buffett. “It’s a big deal,” Buffett told CNBC “Squawk Box” host Becky Quick Thursday. “You get Libor, and you’re talking about the whole world.” Big banks have come under fire following allegations that many profited off the manipulation of Libor, a key interbank lending rate that acts as a benchmark for interest rates around the world. The first bank to admit wrongdoing, Barclays, agreed to pay more than $450 million last month to settle claims it manipulated the rate. The 16 banks under investigation by governments in Europe, the U.S., and Japan for allegedly rigging Libor include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup.
Warren Buffett Looks For A Housing Recovery: Which Homebuilders Should You Buy? (SeekingAlpha)
In a recent interview with CNBC, Warren Buffett changed his outlook on the economic growth in the U.S. Previously, he had said that “the economy and jobs will come back big time when residential construction recovers”. Now, although he remains bullish on a recovery in residential housing, as is evident from his words “we’re seeing a pickup, and it’s noticeable”, he has said that the U.S. economy is “more or less flat”. Amid the global uncertain economic environment, the housing sector is showing healthy signs of improvement, after it experienced a continuous downturn since the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-08. With mortgage rates floating around record-low levels, pending-home and new-home sales peaking to two-year highs, a more-than-expected increase in the 20-city S&P/Case-Schiller composite index, and an increase in residential construction spending, the sector is expected to rebound.
No solution in sight for Europe’s problems: Warren Buffett (MoneyControl)
American business magnate Warren Buffett has said that things are beginning to “slip pretty fast” in Europe over the past six weeks. In an interview to CNBC, Buffett said,” things are beginning to slip pretty fast in Europe, especially over the past six weeks… “they’ll (Europe) get it worked out by ten years from now, but right now there’s no obvious answer.” “A big part of the problem: it’s not clear who is in charge, if anyone, and Europe doesn’t have its own printing press,” he added. The 81-year old investor also told the channel “that the US economic growth has slowed so that it is now essentially flat.”
How Shills From Warren Buffett’s Chinese Car Company Stole Their Own Facebook Contest (Jalopnik)
After a meteoric rise domestically, Chinese automakers are plotting an invasion of foreign markets. The stakes are incredibly high as they prepare to enter America, where Warren Buffett-backed Chinese carmaker BYD has been promising to sell an electric vehicle for a few years. For BYD, failure is not an option. Their plan for raising awareness of their E6 electric crossover was to hold a naming contest for it on their Facebook page. The grand prize of the “BYD Five Grand Giveaway” was, as the name suggests, $5,000 and the winning name on the car permanently. Not too shabby.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hits 16-Month High (CNBC)
Shares of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway continue to rally. The Class B stock closed today at a fresh 16-month high of $84.09 after retreating from a new intraday high of $84.41. …They’re up 10.2 percent year-to-date, outperforming the benchmark S&P’s 6.7 percent gain. Since closing at $66 on September 22, Berkshire Class B shares are up 27.4 percent. Berkshire’s performance will be one of the topics covered when Buffett appears live on “Squawk Box” tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 7:30 am ET.
Stocks slide on Wall Street for sixth straight day (PJStar)
U.S. stocks slid for a sixth day Thursday as concern spread that weaker global economic growth and the European debt crisis will hurt U.S. corporate earnings. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was headed for its longest losing streak since mid-May. Billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett set a gloomy tone before the market opened, telling CNBC that weak demand is hurting his retail, jewelry, carpet and other businesses. He said business in Europe has dropped off quickly in the past two months.
Is Rupert Wiser Than Warren? (DailyFinance)
In a hypothetical contest pitting octogenarian moguls Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch against one another in an investment sense contest, I’m betting most observers would favor Buffett. However, as an erstwhile journalism professor, I’m likely to cast my vote for Murdoch, given the duo’s recent respective leanings in the forlorn realm of publishing. …The entertainment part of the company, from which the publishing portion will be separated, will be made up of film producer Twentieth Century Fox, the Fox News cable channels, and Fox Broadcasting. Under the plan approved unanimously by the company’s board, current shareholders of News Corp. will end up with one share each of the publishing arm and the more lucrative entertainment entity for each share of the combined company they currently own.
