Berkshire Hathaway dropped its 2024 earnings report and Buffett’s annual shareholder letter this week, and honestly? It’s what you would expect from him: Fundamentals, steady growth, zero hype, and a mountain of cash just chilling.

1️⃣ Earnings Overview:

Despite our clickbait title, Berkshire’s business remained solid in 2024. Operating earnings¹ soared 27% for the year and 71% for Q4 alone. Headline numbers² looked kinda weak though, as overall net income fell from $37.6bn to $19.76bn, however, it is important to note that markets have been extra volatile, and they are hitting Berkshire’s stock investments just like everyone else’s.

2️⃣ Insurance Was the MVP:

Something that’s NOT struggling like everyone else’s? Berkshire’s insurance empire. Despite back-to-back hurricanes, Insurance still crushed it this year with GEICO finally bouncing back after years of underperformance. Their investment income skyrocketed 43%, Berkshire’s legendary “float”³ hit $17Bn, additionally, they still managed to bring home underwriting profit⁴ (when insurance premiums exceeded insurance claims).

3️⃣ Buffett Is Selling, Not Buying:

For the 9th straight quarter, Berkshire was a net seller of stocks, offloading $10.1Bn in holdings while spending just $3.4bn on new investments.

Even more telling? No stock buybacks⁵ in Q3 or Q4—a rare pause after years of steady repurchases. This, to us, reinforces the idea that Buffett thinks stocks (including Berkshire’s own) are overvalued right now.

The only notable buy was Constellation Brands, the company behind Corona and Modelo. With Buffett’s very cautious stance on the market, Berkshire’s cash pile has ballooned up to a record $334Bn, that’s a lot of dry powder for the next big opportunity.

4️⃣ Other Fun Notes:

Buffett, who is 94, gave another nod to his future successor Greg Abel hinting that it might be his turn to steer the ship soon.

Buffett also endorsed Japan’s five biggest trading houses (Mitsubishi, Marubeni, Itochu, Mitsui, Sumitomo) for smart capital allocation and hinted at increasing Berkshire’s holdings of these companies, sparking a stock rally Tuesday.

Apple is making its largest-ever U.S. investment, pledging over $500bn over the next four years to expand AI, software development, and domestic manufacturing. The plan is said to include 20,000 new jobs and a strong U.S. supply chain.

Key Announcements:

• New Factory in Texas (250,000 sq. ft.): Starting in 2026, Apple will manufacture servers for Apple Intelligence (its AI system) in Houston, shifting some production from overseas to strengthen U.S. supply chains.

• Doubling the U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Fund ($5 bn → $10 bn): Originally launched in Trump’s first term, this fund helps Apple’s U.S. suppliers develop new tech and manufacturing capabilities. Past beneficiaries include Corning, which led to the creation of Ceramic Shield, a strong smartphone glass.

• New Manufacturing Academy in Detroit: Apple will open a training center where engineers and experts from nearby Michigan State University will guide SMEs in adopting AI and smart manufacturing. The academy will also provide free in-person and online courses.

This announcement follows just days after CEO Tim Cook’s meeting with Trump who has long pushed for companies to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and recently raised tariffs on Chinese imports. Touché, Tim.

Nvidia just dropped another MONSTER earnings report—revenue up 78%, net income a jaw-dropping $22.1 bn, and Q1 2025 guidance⁶ slightly above expectations at $43 bn. But for a stock that’s skyrocketed nearly 500% in two years, “great” just isn’t enough anymore.

Wallstreet was fiending for another crypto-esque moonshot Friday, but instead, they got strong results without much that could spark another rally. CEO Jensen Huang perhaps tried to hype up the crowd by saying that we’re “just at the beginning” of the AI boom, but at a market cap of over $3.2 trillion, moving the needle gets a little tough.

The stock nosedived 8.5% post-earnings in what we’re assuming is a mix of profit-taking and jitters over a potential spending pullback from hyperscalers, especially after last month’s DeepSeek scare⁷.

The safety tests weren’t all completed at the factory because Tesla investors are getting a crash course in volatility. The stock's dropped a whopping 40% since its December high of $479.86, landing at $293.04, with Tesla being booted out of the $1 trillion market cap club. The decline follows a disappointing Q4, with sales and earnings falling short of Wall Street expectations.

Europe’s been a big problem, with Tesla’s registrations (an indication of market-wide sales) dropping 45% YoY, despite the overall market growing by 37%. In Germany, Europe’s largest EV market, Tesla sales dropped by 60%, continuing to signal Tesla’s slipping competitiveness.

Musk’s polarising politics haven’t helped, with his support for Trump and a notorious PR storm involving a fake “Swasticar” ad in London. Tesla has got more competition, less love and the stock is feeling the heat.

The US-Ukraine relationship hit a major bump last week after Zelensky accused Trump of living in a "bubble of misinformation," with Trump firing back, calling Zelensky a dictator with no elections.

This spat flared up just ahead of Zelensky’s Friday White House visit, where both sides had hinted at a deal over Ukraine’s valuable mineral reserves - worth around $500 billion. Despite Zelensky’s initial resistance to the deal, the US demanded 50% of those minerals as compensation for their support in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has led to over $100 billion in US military and financial aid to Ukraine.

Things took a turn for the worse during the press conference on Friday, where Trump and Zelensky clashed over Russia. Zelensky urged the US not to trust Putin, while Trump countered, saying Ukraine had a weak negotiating hand after three years of war. The fiery exchange led to a shouting match between JD Vance, Trump, and Zelensky, ultimately resulting in Zelensky walking out and the planned lunch and further press conferences being cancelled. As Trump put it, "this is going to be great television."

The only winners here? White House staff, who got to enjoy the lunch meant for Zelensky and his entourage.

• Trump threatens Europe with 25pc tariff on “cars and all other things”.

• Trump has proposed a new “gold card” visa costing $5 million, granting wealthy investors permanent residency in the U.S. and a path to citizenship.

• The U.S. FDA has officially ended the shortage of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Ozempic, meaning pharmacies will no longer be allowed to produce cheaper, unbranded versions of the drugs and now have 60–90 days to stop.

• Katy Perry is going to space. That’s it. (Look it up)

• Citigroup accidentally credited a customer $81 trillion instead of $280 in a massive clerical error, but the mistake was caught and reversed within hours.

• Nearly 40% of the federal contracts canceled under Trump’s cost-cutting initiative won’t save the government any money. According to AP news, many of the 2,300 terminated contracts had already been paid for.

1. Operating Earnings: This is an organization’s gross income after they subtract their operating and business-related expenses. Very similar to EBIT.

2. Headline Numbers: The big, attention-grabbing financial figures that news articles always report on, such as revenue, profit, or earnings per share.

3. Float: When you pay for car insurance, for example, the company doesn’t immediately spend that money. Instead, they hold onto it (the float), until a claim needs to be paid. In the meantime, the insurer invests this money, generating extra profit.

4. Underwriting Profit: Another revenue channel for insurance companies. If insurance companies collect more premiums than they pay out in claims, they are generating underwriting profit.

5. Stock Buybacks: When a company uses its own cash to buy back its shares from the stock market. Companies do this when they think their stock is undervalued.

6. Guidance: A company’s future financial outlook/projection, typically provided by management during earnings reports.

7. DeepSeek Scare: Concerns emerged after DeepSeek R1, an open-source AI model, demonstrated performance comparable to Nvidia-powered models, but without relying on Nvidia’s GPUs.

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