Salient to Investors: Warren Buffett said: Increase taxes on those earning more than $500,000, and minimum rates of at least 30 percent on all income above $1 million. The rich won’t strike or stuff mattresses if tax rates are increased. Eliminate carried interest et al that enable income from labor to be converted into capital gains
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a stake in Deere, Precision Castparts, and Wabco Holdings and cut consumer products stocks including Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble in Q3. Berkshire has been reducing holdings of consumer-products stocks in 2012. Eli Lustgarten at Longbow Research said there is a massive need to increase productivity in the world’s farm
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Goel at Matrix Capital Mgmt said DeMark’s algorithms are much more predictive than any other system. Tom DeMark’s says fundamentals do matter, and markets are governed by waves that crest and fall based on Fibonacci numbers and the closely related golden mean, or golden ratio 1.618. DeMark can’t explain why his
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Author Jeff Matthews said Buffett is elephant hunting when there aren’t a lot of elephants. Bloomberg survey shows the average estimate of Wall Street brokerages is for the S&P 500 to end 2012 little changed from its close on Nov. 2. David Kostin at Goldman Sachs said stocks may end 2012 lower
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Warren Buffett said that book value is the best available proxy for intrinsic value. Meyer Shields at Stifel Nicolaus said book value is a number you can hold on to and a reasonable depiction of company worth. Tom Lewandowski at Edward Jones said it’s harder to move the needle when
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: A Berkshire Hathaway unit will be the majority owner of a US residential real- estate affiliate network and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services venture with Brookfield Asset Mgmt. Berkshire has been positioning to benefit from US home market recovery by buying a brickmaker, the loan portfolio of Residential Capital LLC at auction,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Tom Russo at Gardner Russo & Gardner said Berkshire’s Intel trade reflects a more traditional style of value investing – buy attractively priced stocks and sell once they hit a target. Warren Buffett believes that holding large positions in first-class businesses over the long term generates better returns than bonds, gold and other assets often deemed safe. Read
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Berkshire Hathaway has been drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits, including Johnson & Johnson and Intel. John Paulson in Q2 2012 dumped 14 million shares of JPMorgan Chase, his fund’s entire position in Family Dollar and Sara Lee. George Soros recently sold
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Private-equity and institutional funds cannot find enough low-cost foreclosed homes as the supply has fallen and prices have recovered. U.S. home prices are 35 percent below the 2006 peak. Demand for rentals is growing, homeownership is at the lowest level since 1997. Bulk sales may be delayed by political pressure to monitor the properties.
READ MORE... →Berkshire Hathaway’s third plane purchase in less than two years. JPMorgan Chase said larger business jets is the industry’s strongest segment in recent years, buoyed by high net-worth individuals in emerging markets, despite concern that demand may wane for private jets in slowing global economy. Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-11/buffett-adds-cessna-bombardier-planes-in-9-6-billion-deal-1-.html
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