Drinks Are on Berkshire

May 16, 2025

Hello and Welcome!👋 Today is National Bike to Work Day! For the 350,000 commuters now affected by the New Jersey Transit strike, this often-overlooked mode of transportation has suddenly become a very real alternative.

Here’s what we’re watching today:

  • Bulls are getting ahead of themselves

  • Berkshire cracks a cold one and dumps the banks

  • Import prices are about to dish on the tariff drama

  • Today’s earnings slate is quiet

Let’s jump in.🦘🦘

The S&P 500 notched its fourth straight win on Thursday, climbing to a 2.5-month high and a spot that is just 3.8% shy of its February record. But not everyone’s popping champagne—market vet Tom McClellan says bullish vibes are getting too stretched, hinting that this rally is becoming increasingly vulnerable to a breather.

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🧠 Trump opens AI center in Abu Dhabi: Trump just went full Silicon Valley—in the desert. He opened an AI center in Abu Dhabi as part of a plan to flex American tech muscle abroad and counter China. Forget the Art of the Deal—this is the Algorithm of the Deal. Read more

📉 US PPI inflation cools in April: Producer prices in April barely budged, giving the Fed a moment to exhale. Services fell, goods ticked up, and Wall Street whispered sweet nothings about rate cuts. It’s not fireworks, but we’ll take a fizzled spark over a blaze. Read more

💊 UnitedHealth stock sinks, touches 5-year low after new report reveals possible Medicare fraud probe: UnitedHealth just hit the financial ER after reports of a DOJ probe into possible Medicare fraud. Allegedly, they inflated risk scores to cash in on higher government payouts. Investors aren’t prescribing this as a buy. Read more

📈 Fed's Barr says economy on solid footing, trade dispute clouds outlook: Fed Vice Chair Barr says the economy’s jogging along just fine—strong jobs, steady growth, all vibes. But trade tensions could rain on this monetary picnic. Nothing like a tariff tantrum to mess with your macro. Read more

🛒 Walmart warns it will raise prices within weeks because of tariffs: Walmart says it’s hiking prices soon thanks to those pesky tariffs, even though the ink’s still drying on the 90-day delay. Despite pulling in stronger earnings, the world’s biggest retailer is feeling the squeeze. Looks like your rollbacks are getting rolled back. Read more

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Berkshire Cracks a cold One and Dumps the Banks

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway just doubled down on booze and backed off the banks. In its latest 13F filing, the conglomerate revealed it more than doubled its stake in Constellation Brands—the parent of Corona, Modelo, and a shelf's worth of wine labels—boosting its position to $2.2 billion (or 6.6% ownership). Constellation shares popped 2.7% in after-hours trading.

Meanwhile, Berkshire hit the brakes on financials. It fully exited its three-year stake in Citigroup, nixed its holding in Brazilian fintech Nubank, and trimmed its positions in Bank of America and Capital One. The latter is currently trying to acquire Discover, which Buffett apparently isn’t banking on.

Though Berkshire doesn't say who’s behind which trades—Buffett, his investing lieutenants Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, or heir apparent Greg Abel—the market tends to read any Berkshire move as a signal. So naturally, when Buffett buys, others follow.

Between January and March, Berkshire was a net seller of stocks for the 10th straight quarter, offloading $4.7 billion in equities while buying $3.2 billion. Still, it ended Q1 with a cash pile of $347.7 billion. Apple remains its crown jewel, with a $66.6 billion stake.

Oh, and one more thing: Berkshire got the SEC’s green light to keep one or more mystery stock buys under wraps—so the Buffett surprise machine may not be done just yet.

Click here 👈to learn more about our charts.

Click here 👈to learn more about our charts.

🤖 Elon Musk's AI chatbot suggests it was instructed to mention 'white genocide': Grok, Musk’s AI chatbot, took a wild detour into white genocide territory, citing "instructions" from someone up the food chain. Then it backpedaled like a malfunctioning Roomba. Just another day in Elon’s dystopia simulator. Read more

👟 Dick's Sporting Goods is buying Foot Locker for $2.4 billion: Dick’s Sporting Goods is lacing up to buy Foot Locker for $2.4B in a retail power move. Suburbs meet city streets in this sneaker-fueled expansion. Just do it... with a merger. Read more

💰 Coinbase says hackers bribed staff to steal customer data and are demanding a $20 million ransom: Hackers bribed Coinbase employees to snag customer data, then demanded a $20 million ransom like it’s Ocean’s Eleven—but with crypto. Coinbase isn’t paying up, and is instead offering a reward to catch the culprits. Talk about decentralized drama. Read more

🛫 Air traffic controllers in Denver scrambled to use backup communications during an outage: Denver’s air traffic control lost comms mid-flight, forcing a rapid switch to backup systems for 90 seconds of pure chaos. Thankfully, no planes collided and no coffee was reportedly spilled. Just another reminder that “airplane mode” is real—for everyone. Read more

Friday’s session is about to host some key economic data.

Import prices drop (extra relevant thanks to all the tariff drama), and we’ll get a read on housing starts to see how busy builders are.

The main event, though? The University of Michigan’s early look at consumer sentiment for May. Just a heads up—it won’t reflect the latest US-China trade buzz, so take the vibes check with a grain of salt.

Earnings are closing out the week on a quiet note—just a few companies reporting, and none of them are headline grabbers.

Below is our curated list of top value-added insights that uncover what’s happening way beyond the usual financial media headlines.

Thank You So Much GIF

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