Warren Buffett's annual letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, and the entire financial world, will be released later today (Friday, March 3) around 4:30pm ET.  We'll also get Berkshire Hathaway's fourth quarter earnings report.  Current price:

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That's going to be a lot of conversation starters for Buffett's live appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box Monday morning (6am ET) with Becky Quick.  (Buffett will also be answering many of the email questions you've been submitting to us.)

Each year, Buffett's letter is eagerly awaited.  (CNBC's Patti Domm tells me she's heard from some fans who are planning a party of sorts this afternoon.)

We'll be reporting on the letter as soon as it is released, both on CNBC and here on CNBC.com's Warren Buffett Watch.

A reminder that Buffett has given us something of a pre-test question for his letter.  (No, there won't be a quiz afterwards.)   He'll discuss the question, and the answers, with Becky Monday morning on Squawk. 

In a post today on his Reflections on Value Investing blog, Shai Dardashti speculates that Warren's question may be a hint he'll be revisiting the "Joy of Compounding" in today's letter.

The shareholder letters are one of the best ways to get inside Buffett's head.  He writes in a very easy-going, straight-talking, style about what he's been doing, his successes, his failures, and his general observations about investing and the markets.  They often contain a pithy line or two or three that become classic "Buffett-isms."

Many of his fans say they got a lot of their financial education by reading Buffett's letters over the years.  (They are collected on their own page on the Berkshire Hathaway web site.)

In its comprehensive preview story, Reuters speculates that Buffett "may hint at what's next in his bold foray into bond insurance but is unlikely to give specifics on his search for a successor."

Bloomberg quotes analyst Charles Hamilton of FTN Midwest Securities as predicting a 10 percent decline for Berkshire earnings to $1,667 a share, excluding one-time items.   The Reuters estimate is $1,692 a share.  Remember, however, that there aren't a lot of analysts who follow Berkshire, so the consensus estimates are fairly rough.

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