Berkshire's $334B cash, Delinquency & Tariffs - thoughts and my muse for last week (24Mar2025)
News and my thoughts from last week (24 Mar 2025)
In late 2024, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway amassed a $334 billion cash position after the firm became net-sellers of assets including the sale of 117 million Bank of America (BAC) shares, worth about $5.5 billion. - DailyHODL
“So we take these DoorDash loans, combine them, and create a whole new instrument where investors can bet on whether borrowers will pay off their Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme within 12 months” - Dr Parik Patel
The US stock market concentration Bubble is BIBLICAL: The top 10 largest S&P 500 stocks reflect ~36% of the index market capitalization, just shy of a RECORD high. The biggest stock market cap is ~750 TIMES larger than the 75th percentile stock, above the Great Depression levels. - X user Global Markets Investor
DoorDash is now allowing customers to FINANCE their food delivery orders. This comes as US credit card debt hit a RECORD of $1.2 trillion and $2+ trillion of excess savings have been depleted. Are we in a consumer debt bubble? X user The KobeIssi Letter. Will this be revenue for one and delinquency for the other? Good deal?
DoorDash and Klarna have signed a deal where customers can choose to pay for food deliveries in interest-free instalments or deferred options aligned with payday schedules. X user Geiger Capital
The percentage of borrowers at least 60 days late on their car payments is at the highest on record - X user Unusual Whale.
A car is a need in the USA (for some areas).
G7 countries debt-to-GDP ratios in 2024: Japan: 255% Italy: 139% United States: 123% France: 112% Canada: 105% United Kingdom: 104% Germany: 64% - X user Global Markets Investor
China has emerged as a major threat to Germany's car industry and is also putting the chemicals and engineering sector under pressure. - DW News
Creditors owed around US$150 billion by defaulted Chinese developers always stood to get just pennies back, but many are finding that even after a debt plan is agreed, it’s not necessarily a done deal. A growing number of builders that passed a seemingly key stage of restructurings in getting court approval for their plans are heading back to square one, after fresh liquidity problems amid a prolonged property crisis made it harder for them to honour their promises. - Business Times SG
Trump is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a US Trade Representative (USTR) proposal to levy fines of up to US$1.5 million on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that include ships made in China. Those potential port fees have limited the availability of ships needed to move agriculture, energy, mining, construction and manufactured goods to international buyers - Business Times SG
US consumer serious delinquency rates (90+ days) in credit card debt jumped to 11.4%, the highest in 13 YEARS. They are rising at the pace seen in the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2009 - X user Global Markets Investor
Viral video shows BYD mega factory in China that's bigger than San Francisco, 10 times the size of Tesla Gigafactory | Trending - Hindustan Times
Have you seen the 16,000-acre BYD factory in Zhengzhou? And it is still growing.
Will America's tariffs leave them in isolation? Countries like China would be forced to build everything. Give them a few years and they can be the manufacturing capital. What if Canada, Mexico and Europe trade with China, isolating the USA?
U.S. auto loan applications are being rejected at the highest rate in more than a decade - BarChart
Aldi has been growing very quickly in the United States. The discount grocery chain plans to open over 225 new stores in 2025 as part of a broader five-year US growth plan. There are closures and openings. - The Street.
Liner shipping profits are forecast to slide by more than 80% this year. - Splash247
Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc has unveiled its latest large language model Ernie 4.5 and deep-thinking reasoning model Ernie X1, both of which are now freely accessible to individual users. - China Daily
Berkshire sold his real estate holdings. Is he seeing challenges in the industry? - Economic Times
U.S. Annual Interest Expense went from $500 Billion in 2021 to $1.2 Trillion in 2024. Probably Fine - BarChart
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