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Zorro

(15,740 posts) Sat May 2, 2020, 10:14 AM May 2020

Berkshire Hathaway Lost $49.7 Billion in First Quarter Stung by Coronavirus

Source: New York Times

Not even Warren E. Buffett was spared financially from the coronavirus, as his conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, reported a $49.7 billion loss in the first quarter on Saturday, reflecting the outbreak’s toll on an investment portfolio that includes big stakes in major airlines and financial firms.

The loss was Berkshire’s biggest ever and a sharp swing from a $21.7 billion profit in the same quarter a year ago. The conglomerate’s vast array of investments exposed it — and Mr. Buffett, long considered one of the world’s top investors — to huge swaths of the battered American economy.

Its total investment loss for the quarter was $54.5 billion. By comparison, its investment gain in all of 2019 was $56.3 billion.

Berkshire’s investment losses track the overall slide in stock markets: The S&P 500 dropped 20 percent in the first quarter. (The company’s biggest holdings are also mainstays of the S&P 500: American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo, with those stakes amounting to nearly $125 billion.)

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/business/berkshire-hathaway-warren-buffett.html

16 replies

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Berkshire Hathaway Lost $49.7 Billion in First Quarter Stung by Coronavirus (Original Post) Zorro May 2020 OP

It's only money and the amount of the Berkshire Hathaway loss wouldn't even make a abqtommy May 2020 #1

Oct thr DEC 2019?????? Cryptoad May 2020 #2

Chump change...........and he has stock in Wells Fargo .......how convenient for that business model turbinetree May 2020 #3

This zentrum May 2020 #5

Wow what a huge loss! CountAllVotes May 2020 #4

Jimmy Buffett, maybe, but not Warren Buffett. mahatmakanejeeves May 2020 #6

+1 Gidney N Cloyd May 2020 #11

Eh...it's all paper. It'll be back one day but not reported. Bengus81 May 2020 #7

Why won't it be reported? mahatmakanejeeves May 2020 #8

Talking about a press story,not shareholders. Bengus81 May 2020 #9

Oh, I see. Never mind. Thanks. NT mahatmakanejeeves May 2020 #10

off topic...love your sig pic Yavin4 May 2020 #13

For this company, when they say "loss" do they mean "decrease in value of assets" muriel_volestrangler May 2020 #12

I lost all respect for Buffett when he was trying desperately to pump up market toward end of Feb wishstar May 2020 #14

The 1%ers are the ones pushing stumpy.. Maxheader May 2020 #15

Oh, I see..... SergeStorms May 2020 #16

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)

1. It's only money and the amount of the Berkshire Hathaway loss wouldn't even make a

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 10:23 AM

May 2020

down-payment for one of the lives lost due to tRUMP's/reTHUGS/cultists incompetence...

Cryptoad

(8,254 posts)

2. Oct thr DEC 2019??????

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 10:30 AM

May 2020

thats teh first Q!

turbinetree

(24,703 posts)

3. Chump change...........and he has stock in Wells Fargo .......how convenient for that business model

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 10:30 AM

May 2020

zentrum

(9,865 posts)

5. This

Reply to turbinetree (Reply #3)

Sat May 2, 2020, 11:52 AM

May 2020

CountAllVotes

(20,876 posts)

4. Wow what a huge loss!

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 11:14 AM

May 2020

and who would have thought that Buffet has only a high school diploma?

Just another faux con is another take on this greedy parasite!

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,504 posts)

6. Jimmy Buffett, maybe, but not Warren Buffett.

Reply to CountAllVotes (Reply #4)

Sat May 2, 2020, 12:28 PM

May 2020

Warren Buffett

{snip}

Warren Edward Buffett (/ˈbʌfɪt/; born August 30, 1930)[2] is an American investor, business tycoon, and philanthropist, who is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is considered one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of US$88.9 billion as of December 2019, making him the fourth-wealthiest person in the world.

Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He developed an interest in business and investing in his youth, eventually entering the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 before transferring and graduating from the University of Nebraska at the age of 19. He went on to graduate from Columbia Business School, where he molded his investment philosophy around the concept of value investing that was pioneered by Benjamin Graham. He attended New York Institute of Finance to focus his economics background and soon after began various business partnerships, including one with Graham. He created Buffett Partnership, Ltd in 1956 and his firm eventually acquired a textile manufacturing firm called Berkshire Hathaway, assuming its name to create a diversified holding company. In 1978, Charlie Munger joined Buffett and became vice-chairman of the company.

{snip}

Buffett is a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He founded The Giving Pledge in 2009 with Bill Gates, whereby billionaires pledge to give away at least half of their fortunes.

Early life and education

{snip}

In 1947, Buffett entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He would have preferred to focus on his business ventures, but his father pressured him to enroll. Warren studied there for two years and joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He then transferred to the University of Nebraska where at 19, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. After being rejected by Harvard Business School, Buffett enrolled at Columbia Business School of Columbia University upon learning that Benjamin Graham taught there. He earned a Master of Science in Economics from Columbia in 1951. After graduating, Buffett attended the New York Institute of Finance.

Gidney N Cloyd

(19,842 posts)

11. +1

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Reply #6)

Sat May 2, 2020, 01:55 PM

May 2020

Bengus81

(6,931 posts)

7. Eh...it's all paper. It'll be back one day but not reported.

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 12:31 PM

May 2020

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,504 posts)

8. Why won't it be reported?

Reply to Bengus81 (Reply #7)

Sat May 2, 2020, 12:35 PM

May 2020

Although I am not one of them, I suspect the owners of BRK.A and BRK.B will want to know how Berkshire Hathaway is doing.

Perhaps we are talking about two different meanings of the word "reported." The company's earnings will certainly be reported to the SEC and the shareholders. If you mean, no one in the media will have anything to say about an upbeat quarter, I still think that Berkshire Hathaway's results are newsworthy and will be reported in the newspapers.

Bengus81

(6,931 posts)

9. Talking about a press story,not shareholders.

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Reply #8)

Sat May 2, 2020, 12:40 PM

May 2020

mahatmakanejeeves

(57,504 posts)

10. Oh, I see. Never mind. Thanks. NT

Reply to Bengus81 (Reply #9)

Sat May 2, 2020, 12:41 PM

May 2020

Yavin4

(35,443 posts)

13. off topic...love your sig pic

Reply to Bengus81 (Reply #7)

Sat May 2, 2020, 04:04 PM

May 2020

Memories of my younger days. Where does the time go?

muriel_volestrangler

(101,322 posts)

12. For this company, when they say "loss" do they mean "decrease in value of assets"

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 02:26 PM

May 2020

or "excess of money spent over money taken in"? "Loss" and "profit" for a company normally means the latter, but the excerpts seem to point to the former.

wishstar

(5,270 posts)

14. I lost all respect for Buffett when he was trying desperately to pump up market toward end of Feb

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 04:34 PM

May 2020

after the first 2 initial days of stock market drops in late Feb, he spent hours on business channels the following Monday trying to convince everyone to stay in or get in the market because our underlying economy was so great. Whereas in past downturns he was more cautious and not so exposed and provided more realistic warning to investors. Seems that he was another one convinced that the overinflated pumped up market couldn't possible crash.

Maxheader

(4,373 posts)

15. The 1%ers are the ones pushing stumpy..

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 07:35 PM

May 2020

to open the country up....imho....

SergeStorms

(19,204 posts)

16. Oh, I see.....

Reply to Zorro (Original post)

Sat May 2, 2020, 10:29 PM

May 2020

the stock market is only to make money, never to lose money. And here I was thinking that stocks, bonds and such had a bit of risk involved. Silly me.

And how many hundreds of billions has Berkshire Hathaway made in the stock market? I guess the investors won't be returning that, correct?

The 1% can kiss my ever-loving ass.

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