Syz the moment

Nikkei 225 lost 20% or more within a 3-week period? 1. 1990: -21%, (February 14 - March 7), asset price bubble plunge in Japan. 2. 2008: -23%, (September 26 - October 16) post the Lehman collapse. 3. 2013: -21%, (May 22 - June 13), economic stimulus panic. 4. 2020: -23%, (February 21 - March 13), the COVID pandemic panic of 2020. Source: Lawrence McDonald, Bloomberg

Well, think twice. Buffett sold his entire Mcdonalds ($MCD) stock in 1998. Since then, MCD has increased +1,413%, outperforming Berkshire Hathaways returns. Buffett sold his entire Costco #($COST) stake in June 2020. Since then, COST has gained +190%, outperforming Berkshire as well. Buffett also sold all his stakes in airline stocks like Delta Airlines ($DAL) in March 2020. Since then, DAL is up +82% as well Lesson? Don't copy paste what other investors are doing, no matter how great they are. Source: Adam Khoo on X

The Omaha-based conglomerate’s cash hoard jumped significantly higher from the previous record of $189 billion, set in the first quarter of 2024. The increase came after the Oracle of Omaha sold nearly half of his stake in Tim Cook-led tech giant in the second quarter. Berkshire has been a seller of stocks for seven quarters straight, but that selling accelerated in the last period with Buffett shedding more than $75 billion in equities in the second quarter. That brings the total of stocks sold in the first half of 2024 to more than $90 billion. The selling by Buffett has continued in the third quarter in some areas with Berkshire trimming its second biggest stake, Bank of America, for 12 consecutive days, filing this week showed. For the second quarter, Berkshire’s operating earnings, which encompass profits from the conglomerate’s fully-owned businesses, enjoyed a jump thanks to the strength in auto insurer Geico. Operating earnings totaled $11.6 billion in the second quarter, up about 15% from $10 billion a year prior. $BRK Berkshire Hathaway Q2 FY24. • Stock repurchase $0.3B. • $AAPL stake cut by nearly half. • Segment margin 14% (+2pp Y/Y). • Cash and short-term securities $277B. Source: App Economy Insights, CNBC

This is the worst day for stocks since March 16, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic fears. Source: Jacob King, Bloomberg

Today was an absolute chaos in Japan as stocks plummeted more than 6%, the largest decline in 8 years, and experienced 2 circuit breakers during the session... What will the BOJ save first? The Yen, Japanese stocks or the JGBs (of which they already own 50%)? Source: www.zerohedge.com

They reported EPS of $0.02, below expectations of $0.10, on revenue of $12.8 billion, below expectations of $12.9 billion. Intel also announced that they will be laying off 15,000 of their employees. A difficult quarter for Intel. Source: The Kobeissi Letter

The Italian automaker now projects 2024 net revenue of more than 6.55 billion euros ($7.07 billion), up from more than EUR6.4 billion, and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of at least EUR7.90, up from at least EUR7.50. “We are delighted to announce excellent financial results in the second quarter of 2024, which demonstrate again a strong execution and continued growth." – Benedetto Vigna, CEO Ferrari $RACE Q2 2024 in a nutshell: Shipments +3% *EMEA +1% *Americas +13% *Greater China -18% *APAC +4% Revenue +16.2% EBIT +17% *marg 29.9 (29.7) EPS +25% Source: Quartr

Moderna beats estimates but slashes guidance on low EU sales, competitive U.S. vaccine market. It is down -20% today and -79% from its covid all-time-high. Moderna: "Net product sales for Q2 24 were $184M, reflecting a 37% YoY decrease. This reduction aligns with the expected shift to a seasonal COVID-19 vaccine market.." Moderna had $241M in total sales in Q2 and $1.6B in total operating expenses. Adding interest income, they burned $1.27B in one quarter. Cash on balance sheet is down to $2.47B. I fully expect expect them to do large capital raise to dilute shareholders. Source: JaguarAnalytics, The Transcript