Easy come, easy go

Last week, we told you about all the headlines proclaiming that Elon Musk was richer than Warren Buffett, thanks to the spectacular rise in Tesla's stock price this year.

Bloomberg, the proprietor of the Billionaires Index everyone was citing, bannered "Elon Musk Soars Past Warren Buffett." 

Reuters headline said Musk "zooms" past Buffett. And MarketWatch warned, "Look out below!"

This week, Musk's ascent has slowed a bit.

Today, the Bloomberg index has him at #10 on its list with $68.7 billion, $3.5 billion below Buffett's #6 position with $72.2 billion.

As Sean Williams points out on The Motley Fool, Musk topping Buffett doesn't really tell the whole story.

"Musk may hold the nominal edge in net worth for the time being, but the maturity and transparency of Buffett's company, along with his charitable giving, make Buffett the clearly wealthier individual, in my view."

Still, it has been an impressive gain for Musk, who started the year $60 billion behind Buffett.

And over the past 12 months, it's been no contest between shares of Tesla and Berkshire.

But in the trading week just concluded, Berkshire gained 4.5% while Tesla dipped 2.5%. That's what lifted Buffett back above Musk in the rankings.

Finally, an odd development over on the other ranking of billionaires maintained by Forbes.

Last Friday, there was a wide disparity in Musk's estimated net worth on the competing lists. Bloomberg had $70.5 billion while Forbes listed it at $59.3 billion.

One week later, the Forbes estimate is almost $10 billion higher, putting it in the same vicinity as the Bloomberg number.

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS 

This list has been corrected to remove General Motors, which had an erroneous stock price and stake valuation. My apologies for the mistake.

Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. The number of shares held is as of March 31, 2020, as disclosed in the company's May 15 13F SEC filing, except for Bank of New York Mellon, which is as of April 8, 2020 and U.S. Bancorp, which is as of May 12, 2020.

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

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch