fareastwarriors

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/06/27/berkshire-hathaway-units-strike-two-more-deals/ Berkshire Hathaway Units Strike Two More Deals

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-26/mars-said-seeking-to-pay-back-11-45-notes-held-by-berkshire-1-.html .Mars Said Seeking to Pay Back 11.45% Notes Held by Berkshire

Natural gas really ought to be doing better. The front-month futures price is down around 10% so far this month and 16% off April's high point. Yet this week, President Obama re-emphasized plans to cut U.S. carbon emissions that, despite some ambiguities, clearly favor burning more gas over coal. Hotter weather this month should be boosting demand for air conditioning, and thereby electricity, where 37% of gas usage occurs. And the ratio between oil and gas prices has widened this month from under 23 times to almost 26 times, giving drillers even less reason to invest in new gas wells over new oil wells. Natural gas should be doing better, but the front-month futures price is down around 10% so far this month and 16% off April's high point. Last week, a Wisconsin Frito-Lay employee uses a natural-gas fueling station. .Take these in turn. First, while the president's comments are helpful, his proposals are essentially long-dated. For example, he effectively told environmental regulators to go back and reconsider emissions limits for power plants, which will take time. In addition, it is unclear how far coal plants will be replaced with gas or renewable sources. Regarding electricity consumption, while June has heated up, the forecast is less supportive. The Department of Energy expects power demand this summer to be almost 5% lower than last year on expectations that the season will be cooler overall. And the increase in gas prices since the start of the year—up 8% despite recent falls—has pushed generators to switch back to cheaper coal. As for supply, well, it just won't be kept down. Jon Wolff at ISI Group estimates dry gas production in May was almost 65 billion cubic feet a day, up about 1.5 BCF from a year earlier. Although drilling is down, extra supply is coming on partly because new infrastructure is getting more gas to market and low ethane prices are pushing more of that fuel into the gas stream. What's more, Barclays BARC.LN +2.03%reckons that drilling efficiencies mean that despite the spread between oil and gas prices, new gas wells in the best areas such as the Marcellus Shale are competitive with new oil wells in the Bakken shale based on current futures. That last point may be the most ominous of all for gas bulls. While near-month futures have fallen, they are also down all the way through mid-2019. Gas-weighted exploration and production stocks such as Chesapeake Energy CHK +3.74%and Devon Energy, DVN -0.21%valued on longer-term price assumptions, have also lagged behind the broader sector this month. In all likelihood, gas prices probably made their cyclical lows last year and investors have made money in the meantime. Moreover, the long-term future for the fuel, as alluded to in the president's speech, looks assured. But in the here and now, gas prices remain stranded by a simple truth: There is too much around and we aren't using enough of it to change that. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323689204578569480333721390.html?mod=WSJ_HOS_LeadStory

I hope it goes down some so I can buy in at even better prices. ;D

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-26/hartford-boosts-buybacks-raises-dividend-50-.html Hartford Boosts Buybacks, Raises Dividend 50%

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130623/MONEY/701309811/1697 Warren Buffett: Tracy Britt isn't Berkshire CEO successor

Eike Batista... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/business/global/brazil-fortune-and-fate-turn-on-billionaire.html?ref=business&_r=0 Brazil, Fortune and Fate Turn on Billionaire

He's back!

Spam.

At some point, it becomes a rather small business expense relative to other things so I justify paying for it...

Let it lapse a little, they will then dangle low prices to get you back on.

mmmm i do love my lamp chops...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324904004578539443761846024.html?mod=WSJ_business_LeadStoryRotator#articleTabs%3Darticle A Rising Star Emerges at Berkshire

AIG 22.96% AMX 2.94% BAC 44.22% CWGL 0.13% GE 8.60% JPM 1.61% LUK 4.63% NTRI 4.00% PGX 3.09% SD 3.05% XCO 2.40% CASH 2.38%

Curious, do you work for a Berkshire company. How else would one own BRK-B in their company 401K if their company was not Berkshire? I'm not criticizing, want to know how (if) because I will go 100% BRK-B in my 401K and tell everyone I know :) Also some 401k plans allow for "brokerage window" and through that you can purchase basically any security.

+1

That's interesting he's back to managing money. I hope his letters get posted somehow.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-05/fannie-shares-seen-as-worthless-surging-in-disconnect.html .Fannie Shares Seen as Worthless Surging in Disconnect Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares surged to five-year highs last week, giving them a combined market value of $48 billion, about the same as BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager, and Starbucks Corp., the biggest coffee-shop operator. ...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100783879 Zynga to Cut 18 Percent of Workforce, Lay Off 520 Employees; Shares Halted

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/buffetts-energy-gamble-in-las-vegas/ Buffett’s Energy Gamble in Las Vegas Warren Buffett needs luck for his Las Vegas gamble to pay off. Berkshire Hathaway’s $5.6 billion bet on NV Energy suggests the billionaire investor is coming up short on decent ways to deploy his cash. With electrical utility mergers offering meager synergies thanks to the pounds of flesh demanded by regulators, Berkshire will struggle even to cover its cost of capital.

Warren Buffett once said owning a utility was a way to stay rich rather than get rich. But he was being coy. Berkshire Hathaway's BRKB +1.60%$5.6 billion acquisition of Nevada utility NV Energy NVE +22.51%is a case in point. From one angle, it looks like Berkshire is sensibly putting some of its $44 billion cash pile into a steady, if hardly stellar, profit generator. There's a dose of opportunism here, too. Berkshire is offering $23.75 a share, a 23% premium to Wednesday's closing price, though less than 10% above NV Energy's peak for the year, reached only a month ago. Since then, NV Energy's stock, along with the wider sector, had fallen about 10%. Increased expectations that the Federal Reserve would soon taper off its bond purchases have made high-dividend-paying utilities stocks less attractive. NV Energy offers a hedge to this. Nevada suffered more than most in the bust: Las Vegas property prices dropped 62% peak to trough compared with 34% for the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index overall. So Fed tightening should be largely determined by the pace of recovery in states like Nevada, which in turn should underpin electricity demand there, boosting NV Energy's prospects. In addition, Nevada's population growth rate is projected to be about 50% faster than the U.S. average over this decade. Meanwhile, NV Energy will likely overhaul its generation portfolio to reduce reliance on coal. Both provide structural profit growth. Berkshire's last big bet on a utility-like company, 2010's purchase of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad network, also came with less-obvious growth drivers. For one, Burlington Northern happened to be best-placed to transport the subsequent surge in Bakken oil production. Having averaged $2 billion to $2.5 billion in net profit from 2006 to 2009, it made $3.7 billion last year, up 84% since Berkshire bought it. That would sound like getting rich to most investors. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324682204578515270723135556.html?mod=WSJ_Heard_LeadStory

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/berkshire-s-abel-builds-buffett-energy-unit-with-purchase.html Berkshire’s Abel Builds Buffett Energy Unit With Purchase

NV Energy to Join MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nv-energy-to-join-midamerican-energy-holdings-company-2013-05-29 Berkshire's Midamerican to Buy NV Energy for About $5.6 Billion

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000171775&play=1

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-29/tesla-pushes-electric-car-viability-with-rapid-charge-expansion.html Tesla Pushes Electric-Car Viability With Rapid Charging