Berkshire Hathaway’s 2017 shareholder meeting was held on the first weekend in May. The Wall Street Journal carried a helpful live-blog with notes from the lengthy Q&A session with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (the event’s main attraction).
U.S. stocks continued their march higher during 2017’s first quarter. The S&P 500, an index tracking the 500 biggest companies traded on US stock markets, was up over 6% in the quarter, and is up more than 17% over the past 12 months (including the reinvestment of dividends).
Berkshire Hathaway: In Praise of Synthetic Leverage Posted on March 22, 2017 “Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.” –Warren Buffett A few weeks ago, Warren Buffett published his annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway–one which we read with interest each year.
With one stroke of the pen, President Trump (the “Trumpinator”?) most likely signed the death sentence of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) implementation of the so-called fiduciary rule, which would have required investment salespeople to act in their clients’ best interests with their retirement accounts. We understand if you are surprised that such might not already be the case.
U.S. equity markets pushed broadly higher in Q4 and for calendar 2016, boosted by investor optimism that President-elect Trump’s administration will usher in a wave of business-friendly initiatives including reduced government regulation and lower corporate tax rates.
With just a couple weeks left to the year, we naturally ponder the main events of 2016 and how they might shape 2017. We try to abstain from political commentary and limit our opinions (here anyway!) to potential investment consequences from policy decisions.