In what appears to be a bet consumers will stick with discount retailers even after the economy rebounds, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway increased its Wal-Mart holdings by almost 90 percent during the summer.  It added almost 18 million shares, currently worth almost $1 billion, in the third quarter.   Read More

Just minutes after this morning's announcement that Berkshire Hathaway is paying $26 billion to acquire the 77 percent of Burlington Northern Santa Fe it doesn't already own, Warren Buffett spoke live by phone with Becky Quick and Joe Kernen on CNBC's Squawk Box.  This is the complete transcript of their conversation.   Read More

Bank failures are a necessary thing for the industry, said Collyn Gilbert, managing director and senior bank analyst at Stifel Nicolaus.    Read More

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was doing more selling than buying of stocks during the second quarter, but there is one new holding: New Jersey-based medical technology company Becton Dickinson.  Berkshire also added to its stake in Johnson & Johnson, although the holdings are still well below where they were before Buffett sold over 33 million shares last fall.   Read More

The S&P is sitting right at its highest levels since November.  The central thesis is earnings:  P/E multiples will expand in the next several quarters due to the combination of cost cutting and gradually rising revenues.   Read More

April pending home sales of existing homes - which measures contract signings--stronger than expect - April, up 6.7 percent, much better than expectations of a gain of 0.5 percent.    Read More

As Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase are amongst the first banks expected to pay back the TARP, the S&P Financials have been leading the charge since this rally began.  But which banks have been the best performers of late?   Read More

Even though Warren Buffett always says he likes stocks more when they're cheaper, he didn't do a lot of buying as Wall Street's major indexes fell to their bear-market lows (so far) in early March.  Berkshire Hathaway's first quarter stock portfolio snapshot shows no blockbuster buys. A few stakes did, however, get bigger during the first three months on the year.   Read More