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What you need to know on Wall Street right now
Finance Insider is Business Insider's midday summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway published its annual letter to shareholders over the weekend. As you would expect, it covered a bunch of topics, and was full of Buffett-isms. Here are the highlights:
- Stocks are "on the cheap side" and not in bubble territory, according to Buffett
- He also just revealed Berkshire Hathaway has more than doubled its stake in Apple
- He said the way hedge funds charge their clients "borders on obscene"
- He defended stock buybacks, saying they are not "un-American"
- He also sounded the alarm on adjusted earnings, adding that "a CEO whose focus is centered on Wall Street will be tempted to make up the numbers"
- He shared his best investment advice, and said the "elite" have wasted $100 billion ignoring it
- He credited "miraculous" America in part to a "tide of talented and ambitious immigrants"
- Our favorite Buffett-ism from the letter was this beauty: "Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies, and they will briefly rain gold"
- Buffett gave Vanguard founder Jack Bogle a shoutout, saying he has done the "most for American investors"
- He also name-checked Ajit Jain, a key executive, saying: "If you could swap me for him, don't hesitate"
- He also had a book recommendation
In deal news, Snap's IPO is oversubscribed by $7 billion. Some of Snap's new investors won't be able to sell the stock for a year. And Time Warner hit a 52-week high after FCC chairman said he doesn't expect to review the AT&T merger.
There's a bunch of news about President Trump:
- Trump spurred a "consumer awakening" that is pushing businesses into uncharted territory
- Trump is already walking back his most important promise on the economy
- Trump tweeted a wildly misleading comparison of the national debt in his first month to Obama's
- President Donald Trump said that he is still committed to rebuilding the roads and bridges of America
- Here's who would lose money under Trump's proposed tax plan
In other news, Tesla is already showing how the insurance industry will be disrupted by self-driving cars. And Wall Street is divided over the car company, according to Matt DeBord.
Lastly, here's how Americans really feel about their country on 33 key issues, and how that has changed over 40 years.
London Stock Exchange: EU will probably kill our blockbuster merger with Deutsche Boerse - believes the European Commission is unlikely to provide clearance for its merger with Deutsche Boerse AG
The Japanese telecom giant SoftBank is reportedly looking to invest $3 billion in WeWork - Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. is close to finalizing an investment in the US office-sharing startup WeWork in a deal expected to be worth over $3 billion, CNBC reported on Sunday.
A "significant shortage of listings" is restraining the US housing market - US pending home sales unexpectedly fell by 2.8% in January, according to the National Association of Realtors.
One of the best-dressed guys at the Oscars broke all of the rules - Men hear a lot about rules when it comes it dressing. Generally, you should follow them.