Cheddar RSS

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett warned shareholders Monday that many companies will fare better than his Berkshire Hathaway in the decades ahead because of its massive size though others might say the company’s prospects will dim because “Father Time” is catching up with the 95-year-old icon who plans to step down as CEO in January.

Buffett reflected on life and his health in a new letter to shareholders where he announced $1.3 billion in new charitable gifts to the four family foundations run by his children that — along with the Gates Foundation — have been helping steadily give away his fortune since 2006.

Berkshire is known for consistently outperforming the stock market during the past 60 years under Buffett — which helped earn him legions of fans — although that has become harder to do in recent years because of the huge size of the conglomerate. Berkshire owns Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, several large utilities and a diverse assortment of manufacturing and retail businesses, including such well known brands as Dairy Queen, See’s Candy and Helzberg Diamonds. But Buffett also reassured shareholders that he remains confident in his successor.

Buffett promised to keep in touch with shareholders through Thanksgiving letters in the future, but he confirmed that next year Greg Abel will take over Buffett’s famous yearly letter and answer all the questions at the annual meeting after he becomes CEO in January. Buffett will remain chairman.

Buffett said that “through dumb luck, I drew a ridiculously long straw at birth” by being born in Omaha, Nebraska, where he met many lifelong friends — including several who helped shape Berkshire’s fortune — and both his wives after attending public schools. He said he has been fortunate to have his life saved three times by doctors who lived nearby while managing to avoid the kind of calamities that often cut life short.

Buffett recounted spending several weeks in the hospital after having his appendix out as a child where he turned to fingerprinting all the nuns who were taking care of him just in case they turned to a life of crime later. Buffett previously battled prostate cancer in 2012, but that wasn’t considered life threatening.

“Those who reach old age need a huge dose of good luck, daily escaping banana peels, natural disasters, drunk or distracted drivers, lightning strikes, you name it,” he wrote.

But now after decades of benefiting from the fickle nature of “Lady Luck,” Buffett said “Father Time, to the contrary, now finds me more interesting as I age. And he is undefeated; for him, everyone ends up on his score card as ‘wins.’”

Buffett said he is moving slowly and now has increasing difficulty reading, but he continues to go into the office five days a week to hunt for useful business ideas or deals that could benefit Berkshire.

Berkshire shareholders should have faith in Abel because Buffett said he has consistently met the high expectations he has for him. “He understands many of our businesses and personnel far better than I now do, and he is a very fast learner about matters many CEOs don’t even consider. I can’t think of a CEO, a management consultant, an academic, a member of government – you name it – that I would select over Greg to handle your savings and mine,” Buffett wrote.

Berkshire’s fortress-like balance sheet, highlighted by the $382 billion cash it holds, ensures the company is unlikely to encounter a devastating disaster, and Buffett said the board remains conscientious of shareholders’ interests, but still the company will have trouble outperforming.

“In aggregate, Berkshire’s businesses have moderately better-than-average prospects, led by a few non-correlated and sizable gems. However, a decade or two from now, there will be many companies that have done better than Berkshire; our size takes its toll,” Buffett said.

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares advanced in Europe and Asia on Monday as tentative moves by the U.S. Senate to end the federal government shutdown pushed U.S. futures higher.

The Senate voted late Sunday, in a test vote that begins a series of procedural maneuvers, to move toward passing compromise legislation to fund the federal government, though final passage could be several days away. The Senate may hold a vote by mid-December on extending expiring health care tax credits, the key sticking point.

Hopes for an end to the shutdown, the longest ever, pushed the future for the S&P 500 up 0.9%. The future for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4%.

Germany’s DAX gained 1.8% to 23,988.83 and the CAC 40 in Paris jumped 1.4% to 8,060.64. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9% to 9,774.19.

Monday’s gains were led by a rebound in technology shares as investors’ alarm over the runup in stock prices related to the craze for artificial intelligence appeared to calm.

South Korea’s Kospi added 3% to 4,073.24. Computer chip maker SK Hynix, which is cooperating with Nvidia on artificial intelligence, surged 4.5%. Its bigger rival, Samsung Electronics, was up 2.8%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 added 1.3% to 50,911.76, lifted by big gains for AI related shares such as chip maker Tokyo Electron, which surged 4.3%.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 1.6% to 26,649.06 and the Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.5% to 4,018.60.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.8% to 8,835.90.

Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 0.8%, while the Sensex in India gained 0.3%.

On Friday, stock indexes closed mixed on Wall Street, clocking their first weekly loss in the last four. The S&P 500 inched 0.1% higher and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq fell as much as 2.1%, but recovered most of its losses, shedding 0.2%.

Major indexes wobbled throughout most of the week, weighed down by technology stocks, especially several big names with huge valuations that give them outsized influence over the direction of the market. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, fell 2.1% and Broadcom fell 1.7%.

Wall Street remains focused on the latest quarterly reports and forecasts from U.S. companies.

More than 90% of companies within the S&P 500 have reported earnings for their latest quarter. Most companies have reported growth beyond Wall Street expectations and the influential tech sector has the strongest growth, according to data from FactSet.

Corporate profits and forecasts were already being scrutinized by Wall Street as investors try to gauge whether the market’s overall high value is justified. The results have taken on more significance amid a lack of other data about the economy because of the U.S. government shutdown, which is now the longest on record.

The shutdown is responsible for delays in key economic data on inflation and employment that traders and the Federal Reserve rely on in making decisions about investments and policy. The lack of data on employment is especially troubling because the job market has been weakening.

The Fed has signaled a more cautious approach on interest rate cuts that Wall Street has been expecting to help stimulate the economy by reducing the cost of borrowing.

The Fed has already cut its benchmark rate twice this year as it tries to counter the impact that a weakening employment market could have on economic growth. Cutting rates could worsen inflation at a time when levels are stubbornly higher than the central bank’s 2% goal, however.

Wall Street is still mostly betting that the Fed will cut interest rates at its December meeting.

In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up 67 cents to $60.42 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 62 cents to $64.25 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 154.17 Japanese yen from 153.72 yen. The euro inched up to $1.1569 from $1.1562.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track Monday after a handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to break the impasse in what has become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services, the longest in history.

What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal drew sharp criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation provides funding to reopen the government, including for SNAP food aid and other programs, while also ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers the Trump administration had left in doubt.

But notably lacking is any clear resolution to expiring health care subsidies that Democrats have been fighting for as millions of Americans stare down rising insurance premiums. That debate was pushed off for a vote next month, weeks before the subsidies are set to expire.

President Donald Trump noted the deal as he arrived at the White House after watching the Washington Commanders’ game on Sunday evening against the Detroit Lions, on the 40th day of the funding lapse. “It looks like we’re getting close to the shutdown ending,” he said.

The Senate could wrap up passage as soon as Monday. The bill cleared a procedural hurdle, 60-40, late Sunday, with eight Democrats joining most Republicans. In a rare dissent, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York voted against because it failed to fully address the health care funds.

It would next go to the House, where lawmakers have been away since September but were being told to prepare to return to Washington this week. Then, it’s to Trump’s desk for his signature.

Here’s a look at the deal as it’s moving through Congress:

Included is funding to keep much of the federal government running for the next couple of months, to Jan. 30, with a stopgap measure. It largely funds government operations at their current rates.

Yet in a breakthrough for what’s considered a more normal appropriations process, the package also includes several bills to fully fund other government operations including agricultural programs and military construction along with veterans’ affairs for the full fiscal year, through September 2026.

Additionally, the package ensures states would be reimbursed for money they spent to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, and the Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, running during the shutdown.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, said she was “relieved.”

“This shutdown has gone on far too long,” she said. ”And I also think it’s highly significant that we’ll have three yearlong appropriations bills attached. Veterans Day is coming very soon, and it would be wonderful if we get the full-year Veterans Affairs bill signed into law.”

The Democrats failed to secure their main demand during the shutdown, which was an extension of the health care subsidies that many of the 24 million people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act rely on to help defray costs.

Instead, the package guarantees a vote on the issue in December — which was not enough for most of the Democrats, who rejected the deal and voted against it.

“The American people want us to stand and fight for health care,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

The package seeks to roll back some of the Trump administration’s shutdown-related hits to the federal workforce. Employees have faced repeated threats of firings and mass layoffs this year.

The stopgap measure reinstates federal workers who had received reductions in force, or layoff, notices and protects against such future actions.

It also would provide back pay for federal workers who were furloughed or working without pay during the shutdown — something that’s traditionally provided but that the Trump administration had threatened was not guaranteed.

Political and procedural hurdles remain as Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, slogs through more voting and the shutdown entered its 41st day Monday.

Senators hope to skip past a series of steps that could drag voting out all week if the dissenters put up a prolonged fight.

One Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against advancing the package Sunday, and he is said to have concerns over a hemp industry provision. And three ultra-conservative GOP senators held up voting for more than two hours as they demanded consideration of their ideas. It is unclear if any of them plans to stage further protests.

Democrats, who have fought for the past month in their hopes of preserving the health care subsidies, also could delay final passage, and their next steps are uncertain.

And the package faces fresh scrutiny once it goes to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana holds a slim GOP majority and would likely need almost all Republicans to support the bill in the face of objections from Democrats who are holding out for the health care funds.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the party will fight the bill, forcing the Republicans in the House to pass it largely on their own.

“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits” Jeffries said. “Donald Trump and the Republican Party own the toxic mess they have created.”