US stocks kick off November on a positive note after October marked a sixth straight month of gains, with futures higher ahead of a big week for earnings from AMD (AMD), Palantir (PLTR), and Qualcomm (QCOM). Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) reported strong insurance results and a record $381.7 billion cash pile, but no share buybacks — a sign Warren Buffett may still see the stock as expensive as he prepares to step down as CEO at year-end, handing the role to Greg Abel while remaining chairman. In consumer staples, Kimberly-Clark (KMB) is buying Tylenol maker Kenvue (KVUE) for $40 billion in a deal that would vault it past Unilever (UL) as the No. 2 global health-and-wellness player. Fed officials remain sharply divided on whether to cut rates again in December after two straight moves, with hawks warning about sticky inflation and doves arguing for more easing. Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA) shareholders prepare to vote Thursday on Elon Musk’s proposed $1 trillion pay package, and breaking news hit that OpenAI has signed a $38 billion cloud deal with Amazon (AMZN) Web Services to tap Nvidia GPUs as part of a broader AI capex boom that already tops $400 billion for 2025. In trending tickers, Australia-based AI data center operator Iris Energy (IREN) struck a $9.7 billion cloud capacity deal with Microsoft (MSFT), and Pfizer (PFE) is suing to block Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) bid for obesity-drug startup Metsera.

Takeaways:

Berkshire’s cash hoard hits a record $381.7B with no buybacks as Buffett prepares CEO handoff to Greg Abel

Kimberly-Clark to buy Kenvue for $40B, aiming to leapfrog Unilever in health and wellness

Fed officials split on a December rate cut after two straight moves lower

OpenAI signs $38B cloud deal with AWS; Microsoft inks $9.7B AI capacity pact with Iris Energy

Tesla faces high-stakes shareholder vote on Elon Musk’s proposed $1T pay package

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