Munger adds to bet on Alibaba as the stock sinks

Charlie Munger's Daily Journal has nearly doubled its stake in ADRs of Alibaba, the enormous Chinese online commerce company.

SEC filings show that during the third quarter, Daily Journal's holdings went up by 83% to a bit more than 302 thousand shares.

But the value of the stake rose by only 19% to $44.7 million. (Very small by Berkshire standards.)

That's because the ADRs fell by 35% during the same period, which likely helped prompt Munger to buy more.

The news this week of Munger's purchases, however, pushed the ADRs higher. They closed today with a 12% gain for the week.

Chinese stocks have been falling in recent months as the government moves to rein in the country's high-flying tech companies and entrepreneurs.

As evidenced by the views we heard at CNBC's recent Delivering Alpha conference, that's set off a debate, with some saying Chinese stocks are "on sale" while others argue the "game is over."

Munger has been a fan of Chinese stocks for several years. At the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, he said "American investors are missing China," in part because the market is too difficult to understand.

And in a CNBC special taped this year, Munger praised the Communist Chinese government's moves to reduce what he sees as "excess" speculation, specifically mentioning how it "just called in (Alibaba co-founder) Jack Ma and said, 'You aren't going to do it, sonny.'"

"I don't want ... all of the Chinese system, but I certainly would like to have the financial part of it in my own country."

Buffett tops $100 billion in new Forbes 400 list

Warren Buffett's net worth is estimated at $102 billion in the new Forbes 400 list of America's richest people.

After two years of declines brought his fortune down to $73.5 billion in the 2020 ranking, he's up 39% over the past twelve months thanks to Berkshire's climbing stock price, even as he continues to give billions to charities.

Buffett is #8 on the list, after Larry Ellison's $117.3 billion and before Steve Ballmer's $96.5 billion.

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

Note: These charts include a 1.6% drop for BRKa in extremely low-volume trading during today's after-hours session.

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - Oct 8, 2021

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.

Holdings are as of June 30, 2021 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on August 16, 2021, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of June 30, 2021 as disclosed in New England Asset Management’s 13F filing on August 16, 2021.

In addition to U.S. stocks, shares held as of December 31, 2020 of China's BYD, as listed in Buffett's 2020 letter to shareholders, are included. The price of those shares in U.S. trading is used to approximate the current market value of the position. The value of the stake as a percentage of the company's market value is fixed at what was listed as of December 31, 2020 in the letter.

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

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch