WARREN BUFFETT WATCH

Berkshire's big benchmark lead levels off

After strongly outperforming the S&P 500 stock index between mid-February and early April, Berkshire Hathaway's shares have been moving with the market benchmark over the past two weeks.

The B shares still have an impressive 24.5 year-to-date percentage point lead.

But, as we began to see last week, the gap has remained roughly constant since hitting 25.2 percentage points on April 3, its highest level so far this year.

That was the first trading session after President Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs on the afternoon of April 2, and four trading days before he set a 90-day "pause" for almost all of them, while raising tariffs on China,

In this 4-day week's trading, there's not much separation between the lines for the S&P and BRK shares.

Year-to-date, Berkshire shares are up more than 14% and the S&P is down more than 10%.

Berkshire book signed by Buffett draws $100,000 top bid

An auction of a newly expanded edition of a book looking back at 60 years of Berkshire Hathaway's history, signed by Warren Buffett and editor Carrie Sova, has raised more than $300,000 for Omaha's Stephen Center.

The top bid was $100,000, and seven other copies went to bidders who donated between roughly $20,000 and $50,000.

Buffett will be matching all the donations.

Photo: Stephen Center

While the first round of bidding ended on Monday, the Stephen Center's website says there are more signed copies available.

It plans to announce details of the next opportunity to get one in its newsletter for Berkshire shareholders.

Unsigned copies will be available at Berkshire's annual meeting in early May.

In his February letter to shareholders, Buffett wrote that 60 Years of Berkshire Hathaway will include Charlie Munger's "photos, quotes and stories that have seldom been made public."

The Stephen Center, founded in 1984, now features "a multi-facility campus designed to support vulnerable men, women and children as they seek to overcome homelessness, addiction and poverty."

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE

Buffett: It's 'good news' when stocks drop (2016)

In a 2016 live "Squawk Box" interview, Warren Buffett tells CNBC's Beck Quick why he doesn't get upset when the stock market goes down.

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

Four weeks

BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - Apr. 18, 2025

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong, by market value, based on today's closing prices.

Holdings are as of December 31, 2024 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on February 14, 2025, except for:

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

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.

Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website.

-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch