Buffett's Berkshire barely beats S&P in 2021

Berkshire Hathaway snapped its two-year losing streak against the benchmark S&P 500 stock index, but it was close.

VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE FRI, DEC 31, 2021 WARREN BUFFETT WATCH Buffett's Berkshire barely beats S&P in 2021 Berkshire Hathaway snapped its two-year losing streak against the benchmark S&P 500 stock index, but it was close.   Just going by the price changes, Berkshire Class A shares ended 2021 with a comfortable lead, 29.6% to 26.9%.    But in his annual letters, Buffett measures Berkshire's market performance against the S&P with dividends included.   That adds another 1.8 percentage points, raising the S&P's gain to 28.7%, just 0.9 percentage points below Berkshire.   The winning margin for Berkshire's Class B shares is even smaller. They were up 28.9% this year. Sanders grabs headlines with call for Buffett to intervene in strike Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) got some news media attention this week when he publicized his call for Warren Buffett to intervene on behalf of workers striking at a Berkshire subsidiary.   He didn't, however, persuade Buffett to get involved.     In a news release Thursday, Sanders said he had written a letter to Buffett about a three-month old strike by around 450 workers at Special Metals in Huntington, West Virginia. It is a subsidiary of Precision Castparts, which is owned by Berkshire.   In his letter, Sanders argues that the company's 5-year contract offer is "outrageous and insulting," with wage increases that won't keep up with inflation and cuts that "would almost quadruple the cost of health care" coverage for the workers.   He adds, "At a time when this company and Berkshire Hathaway are both doing very well, there is no reason why workers employed by you should be worrying about whether they will be able to feed their children or have health care... You and Berkshire can do better than that."     In his reply letter, which Sanders included in his news release, Buffett notes that Berkshire's long-standing operating structure has its companies "deal individually with their own labor and personnel decisions."   He said he would send Sanders' letter to Precision Castpart's CEO but would be "making no recommendation to him as to any action" because "he is responsible for his business."   Buffett adds that Berkshire has "never purchased or sold a company because of its union or non-union status" and points out that some units have many unions while others have none. BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET Some links may require a subscription Business Insider: Elon Musk planned to take on Warren Buffett's See's Candies — but scrapped the idea after failing to find a far superior candy Bloomberg: Buffett-, Anschutz-Backed Power Lines Get Deal to Move Forward (Subscription) Barron's: Berkshire Stock Is Cheap. It's One of Barron's Top Stock Picks, Too. (Subscription) Forbes: Buffett's Top 5 Holdings See Mixed Performances In 2021 Herald & Review (Decatur, IL): Fired state agency head who helped [Howard] Buffett now subject of criminal probe Financial Post: Warren Buffett could be dead wrong about his recent stock sales Newsweek: World's 20 'Most Admired' Men of 2021—Warren Buffett, Joe Biden Join List BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH         BERKSHIRE'S TOP U.S. STOCK HOLDINGS - Dec 31. 2021     Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.   Holdings are as of September 30, 2021 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on November 15, 2021, except for Apple, Bank of America, and U.S. Bancorp, which also include shares held as of September 30, 2021 as disclosed in New England Asset Management's 13F filing on August 16, 2021.   In addition to U.S. stocks, shares held as of December 31, 2020 of China's BYD, as listed in Buffett's 2020 letter to shareholders, are included. The price of those shares in U.S. trading is used to approximate the current market value of the position. The value of the stake as a percentage of the company's market value is fixed at what was listed as of December 31, 2020 in the letter.   The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.   QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)   If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.   Happy New Year!   -- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch   Unsubscribe Manage Newsletters Terms of Service   Digital Products Feedback Privacy Policy   © 2021 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. A property of NBCUniversal. 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by THOMSON REUTERS