📱 Is The Oracle Of Omaha Signaling Something?

Good morning. US stock futures fell sharply in Monday morning trading as part of a global market sell-off centered around U.S. recession fears.

💵 Buffett offloads massive stake in Apple

📝 Our report: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway pulled a surprising move last quarter by selling nearly half of its massive Apple stake, a twist for the typically long-term-focused investor. The Omaha-based conglomerate disclosed in its most recent earnings filing that its holding in the iPhone maker was valued at $84.2 billion at the end of the second quarter, suggesting that the Oracle of Omaha offloaded a little more than 49% of the tech stake.

 🔑 Key points:

• The Apple share sale comes amid a broader pattern of selling by Buffett in the second quarter as Berkshire unloaded more than $75 billion in equities in the period, raising the conglomerate’s cash fortress to a record $277 billion.

• Buffett had trimmed the Apple stake by 13% in the first quarter and hinted at the Berkshire annual meeting in May that it was for tax reasons.

• The 93-year-old investor largely avoided technology companies for most of his career before Apple. Berkshire began buying the stock in 2016 under the influence of Buffett’s investing lieutenants Ted Weschler and Todd Combs.

💡 So what: Warren Buffett’s decision to sell nearly half of Berkshire Hathaway's substantial Apple stock has significant implications for his company, Apple, and the wider stock market. For Berkshire Hathaway, this move could signal a strategic shift or reallocation of funds into other ventures. For Apple, while the sale might cause a temporary dip in stock prices due to reduced confidence from other investors, its strong fundamentals should mitigate long-term impacts. For the wider stock market, this move might create short-term volatility, potentially influencing other investors and leading to broader selling pressures in the tech sector, though it could also redirect capital to underperforming areas.

Monday - No Major Economic News

Tuesday - U.S Trade Deficit

Wednesday - Consumer Credit

Thursday - Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin Speaks

Friday - No Major Economic News

📈 John Templeton shares his 4 investing principles

💰 4 types of debt you should know how to pay off

🧑🏽‍💼 These 9 signs suggest it might be time to look for a new job!

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🥤 Coca-Cola on the hook for billions in back taxes

WHAT: Coca-Cola Co. announced it will pay $6 billion in back taxes and interest to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) while appealing a federal tax court decision dating back 17 years. The Atlanta beverage giant said it will continue to fight and believes it will win the legal dispute stemming from taxes and interest the IRS maintains the company owes from 2007, 2008 and 2009.

WHY: The dispute reached court in December 2015, shortly after the company said it notified the IRS that it owed $3.3 billion more in federal taxes and interest for those three years. In a recent statement, Coca-Cola accused the IRS of changing how it let the company calculate U.S. income based on profits amounting to more than $9 billion from foreign licensees and affiliates.

🍫 Chocolate maker explores acquisition

WHAT: Family-owned candy titan Mars, known for M&M's and Snickers, is reportedly eyeing a sweet deal to acquire Kellanova, the maker of Cheez-It and Pringles, according to insiders. A deal would be one of the biggest ever in the packaged food sector, given Kellanova's market value of $22 billion, and test the appetite of U.S. regulators to allow consolidation in the sector.

WHY: Dealmaking in the packaged food sector has been robust as companies seek scale to weather the impact of price inflation and drug-loss drugs weighing on demand.

🤖 Meta lines up celebrity voices for AI

WHAT: Meta is holding talks with stars like Awkwafina and Judi Dench, as well as other notable influencers, to use their voices for its MetaAI digital assistant, according to reports from the New York Times. While details such as who may sign on are still uncertain, the paper said Meta could pay millions of dollars in fees to the actors if a deal was reached.

WHY: Meta has signaled it would continue to spend big on AI infrastructure. Like many tech peers, it has been plowing billions of dollars into its data centers to capitalize on the boom in generative artificial intelligence.

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