From May 3rd to 5th, local time, the "Investment Community Spring Festival Gala" and the annual Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting will be held. The
shareholders' meeting will still last for three days, with the first day on May 3 being a shopping event for investors.
May 4th will be Buffett’s Q&A session and shareholder dinner, which are also the top priorities of this event. It is reported that the session will be broadcast live on cnbc.com in English and Mandarin Chinese.
html May 5th is the "Invest in Yourself" 5-kilometer jogging event. In the past, Buffett would be there to fire the starting gun.At the same time, Berkshire will also release its first quarter financial report.
Shareholders’ meeting without Munger
For investors, Buffett’s annual question and answer session is something that everyone must pay attention to.
Beginning at 10:15 pm on the 4th, Beijing time, Buffett will bring the company’s CEO successor Greg Abel, head of Berkshire’s non-insurance business, and Ajit Jain, head of insurance business, to answer questions Shareholder questions.
As usual, Buffett’s Q&A session will last at least 5 hours and involve 40 to 60 questions.
In the past, Buffett and Munger attended this session together every year. However, since Munger has passed away, the scene of the two answering questions together has become history. Buffett is currently nearly 94 years old.
Buffett revealed that both Abel and Jain will attend the morning half of this year's question and answer session, and only he and Abel will answer questions in the afternoon.
Previously, Buffett would not only share his investment experience, but also often talk about his thoughts on life.
Several highlights
In this year’s question and answer session, outsiders speculated that Buffett’s answer contained the following highlights.
Regarding the huge amount of cash
Berkshire’s financial report shows that as of the fourth quarter of last year, the company’s cash reserves rose to a record high of 167.6 billion U.S. dollars, equivalent to approximately 1.2 trillion yuan. How
such a huge cash flow will be used will be the focus of investors.
About Japanese stocks
Previously, Buffett had made frequent operations in Japan. He first raised the shareholding ratio of Japan's five major trading companies to 9%, and recently issued a new Japanese yen bond to raise 263.3 billion yen.
Since last year, with the blessing of Buffett, Japanese stocks have frequently hit new highs, but have fallen back recently. Buffett's next moves may continue to affect the trend of Japanese stocks.
Therefore, the market is very concerned about Buffett's next move in Japan.
About Apple
What surprised the market was that Berkshire rarely reduced its holdings of 10 million shares of Apple stock in the fourth quarter of last year. However, Apple is still Berkshire's largest holding.
At last year's shareholders' meeting, Buffett reflected that he was "very stupid" to reduce his holdings in Apple in 2020.
reduced his holdings again a few months later. I wonder if his view of Apple has changed. The reasons behind this operation are also thought-provoking.
About oil stocks
Berkshire continues to increase its position in Chevrolet, Occidental Petroleum and other oil stocks. Currently, Buffett's shareholding ratio in Occidental Petroleum has risen to 34%. In the fourth quarter of last year, he also added 15.845 million shares of Chevrolet.
About the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy
html At the May meeting, the Federal Reserve kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged at the range of 5.25%-5.50% for the sixth consecutive time. At the same time, it will slow down the scale of the reduction of the national debt balance sheet from June to 60 billion US dollars per month. It was reduced to US$25 billion, and the balance sheet shrinkage was slightly faster than expected.Meanwhile, Powell dismissed the possibility of raising interest rates and said that if inflation is more persistent and the labor market remains strong, delaying a rate cut may be appropriate, but there are other paths that could point to a rate cut.
Buffett's outlook on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy and the U.S. economy will become the focus of investors' attention.
About the Chinese market
Recently, many foreign investment banks have been bullish on the Chinese market, and Hong Kong stocks and A-shares have experienced surges before the May Day holiday.
During the May Day holiday, US stocks and Chinese concept stocks surged, the RMB appreciated, and Hong Kong stocks surged.
Overnight, the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index rose by more than 6%, setting a new closing high since the end of November last year and the largest single-day increase since the end of July last year.
This morning, the offshore RMB rose above the 7.19 mark against the US dollar.
Regarding the future development of Chinese assets, I wonder how Buffett will express his position.
About ai
At last year’s shareholder meeting, Buffett expressed his concerns about AI, saying that AI reminded him of the invention of the atomic bomb. “AI can do almost anything, which makes me a little worried.”
In the first quarter of this year, technology giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta have all stated that they will increase their annual capital expenditures, mainly investing in AI.
doesn’t know whether Buffett’s views on AI have changed after a year of development.
