Futures Hit New Record High After Buffett Reveals 5% Stakes In Five Major Japanese Trading Companies'

There were audible gasps across Wall Street on August 15th when the latest Berkshire 13-F revealed that the Oracle of Omaha had cut his stakes in most US banks (and fully sold out of Goldman), while taking a new and unprecedented for Berkshire Hathaway position in Barrick Gold.

But while Warren Buffett, who turns 90 today was dumping US banks, he was quietly building up sizable stakes in the five of the largest Japanese trading companies.

In a press release published late on Sunday, Berkshire Hathaway revealed that it had acquired stakes in Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui and Sumitomo of "slightly more" than 5%, signaling it may increase those holdings in the future. These holdings were acquired over a period of approximately twelve months through regular purchases on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

According to the statement, Berkshire Hathaway’s intention is to hold its Japanese investments for the long term. "Depending on price, Berkshire Hathaway may increase its holdings up to a maximum of 9.9% in any of the five investments. However, Warren E. Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has pledged that the company will make purchases only up to an ownership of 9.9% in any of the five investments. The company will make no purchases beyond that point unless given specific approval by the investee’s board of directors.

Buffett expressed his pleasure with the investments:

“I am delighted to have Berkshire Hathaway participate in the future of Japan and the five companies we have chosen for investment. The five major trading companies have many joint ventures throughout the world and are likely to have more of these partnerships. I hope that in the future there may be opportunities of mutual benefit.”

The release also noted that Berkshire Hathaway has 625.5 billion of yen-denominated bonds outstanding, maturing at various dates beginning in 2023 and ending in 2060. Consequently, the company has only minor exposure to yen/dollar movements.

Following the report, the five named stocks spiked and Nikkei futures jumped by more than 1%…

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/futures-hit-new-record-high-after-buffett-reveals-5-stakes-five-major-japanese-trading

PANIC Australian MSM

Twitter removes QAnon supporter's false claim about coronavirus death statistics retweeted by Trump

Twitter took down a tweet containing a false claim about coronavirus death statistics that was made by a supporter of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory - a post that President Donald Trump had retweeted earlier in the day.

The tweet - which has been replaced with a message saying, "This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules - from "Mel Q," copied from someone else's Facebook post, claimed that the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had "quietly" updated its numbers "to admit that only 6 per cent" of people listed as coronavirus deaths "actually died from Covid," since "the other 94 per cent had 2-3 other serious illnesses."

That's not what the CDC said.

As of Sunday at 4 pm ET, Twitter had not removed a second tweet, also retweeted by the President on Sunday, that spread the same false claim. The second tweet, by Trump campaign adviser Jenna Ellis, linked to an article on the right-wing website Gateway Pundit that was based on the QAnon supporter's tweet.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on Trump's retweets.

The CDC's latest regular update to a public statistics page on the pandemic - there was nothing especially "quiet" about it - said that for 6 per cent of the deaths included in its statistics, "Covid-19 was the only cause mentioned" on the deceased person's death certificate.

https://www.9news.com.au/world/twitter-removes-qanon-supporters-false-claim-about-coronavirus-death-statistics-that-trump-had-retweeted/6daf8ca1-3d51-4738-bd4d-d4117c46e729

RIP free speech