Berkshire selling $4 billion worth of yen-denominated bonds

Berkshire Hathaway joined a record-breaking $150 billion global corporate bond "binge" this week by borrowing $4 billion worth of Japanese yen.

It priced a 430 billion yen six-part offering that Bloomberg calls "the biggest yen bond sale by a non-Japanese borrower."

While Bloomberg says "few are willing to forecast how long the binge will last," for now "borrowers around the world are loading up on cheap money while they can."

It's unclear why Berkshire borrowed so much in yen, but borrowing costs in Japan are extremely low, with the Bank of Japan's base rate at -0.1 percent. 

It is also possible, one could speculate, that Buffett wants yen because he sees one or more investment opportunities in Japan.

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares closed at $307,260 Friday, up 2.3% over the previous four weeks, and down 4.0% from one year ago.

Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares closed at $204.73, up 2.9% over the previous four weeks, and down 3.8% from one year ago.

The benchmark S&P 500 index closed at 2978.71, up 2.1% over the previous four weeks, and up 3.5% from one year ago.

BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS 

Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. The number of shares held is as of June 30, 2019, as disclosed in the company's August 14 13F SEC filing.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

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