Last-Second Spike Sends Buffett's Berkshire Back to All-Time High Territory

In a stunning last-second spike, shares of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway closed today (Friday) at $147,000 each.

That's an increase of $18,990 a share, or 14.83 percent, the biggest one-day move ever for Berkshire.

It was just late July that Berkshire was down 25 percent from its all-time high set last December.

It is now just 1.5 percent below that closing high of $149,200 and up 31.5 percent above the near-term July 39 low of $111,750.

The stock is up 3.8 percent on the year, compared to the S&P's 14.5 percent YTD decline.

Just this morning, we had a post reporting that Buffett was beating the market for the year, after underperforming the S&P for several months. Now, it's not even close.

The jump to $147 thousand came in the last few trades of the session. Most of the day, the stock was trading between $130,000 and $135,000. The spike appears to be related to a big disparity between buy and sell orders at the close.

I have no information on any specific catalyst for the move. Berkshire is, however, one of the financial stocks included in the SEC's temporary no-short rule, and that may have something to do with it.

It has been a good few days for Buffett and Berkshire. He picked up a bargain in the energy sector and Reuters notes that his holdings in the financial sector may be up $3.5 billion from the two-day rally that's lit up the sector in the wake of the Treasury's plan to resolve the nation's credit crisis.

Berkshire reported big stakes in Wells Fargo and American Express in its most recent quarterly portfolio snapshot. Wells is up 19 percent over the two days. American Express gained 22.3 percent.

Current Berkshire stock prices:

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Class B:

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