Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company crossed $1 trillion in market value Wednesday, making it the first non-tech firm on Wall Street to pass the milestone.

Buffett, who turns 94 on Friday, has been chair of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970, transforming it from a small textile company into one of the world’s most valuable firms, and turning him into one of the world’s richest men.

On Wednesday, Berkshire Hathaway’s market capitalization crossed $1 trillion in early trading, putting it in an exclusive club alongside tech titans like Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft.

The company’s Class A shares closed up 0.8 percent, and its Class B shares closed up 0.9 percent, leaving it with a total market value of just over $1 trillion.

It is the only publicly-traded, non-tech firm other than Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, to hit such heady heights. Electric vehicle maker Tesla, which previously hit a $1 trillion market capitalization, is considered to be a technology company by many analysts.

The Nebraska-based firm’s portfolio spans a vast array of sectors, including insurance, railroads and retail.

Buffett, who has been dubbed the “Sage of Omaha,” popularized a dispassionate, long-term approach to investing that ran counter to the short-term thinking of many market players at the time.

Buffett has been in a selling mood of late, convincing Berkshire Hathaway to dump large quantities of stock in some of its biggest holdings, including Apple and Bank of America, accumulating vast cash reserves.

The firm has plowed its growing cash pile into government bonds to such an extent that it now owns more short-term US Treasury bills than the Federal Reserve. 

Source: ARAB

Business confidence has lifted sharply in the wake of the Reserve Bank’s turnaround on monetary policy. The ANZ survey of business opinion saw general confidence rise from 27.1 to 50.6 in August, the highest reading in a decade. Firms’ expectations for their own activity, which tends to correspond more closely with GDP growth, rose from 16.3 to 37.1, the highest since 2017.

Firms' confidence was up across a range of measures, including hiring and investment intentions and expected profits. And to remove any doubt about the source of this newfound optimism, expectations about the availability of credit rose to their second-highest since this question was added to the survey in 2009.

Many of the survey responses will have been received before the RBNZ cut the OCR at its 14 August Monetary Policy Statement. However, the change of tone in its July policy review laid the groundwork for this move.

We wouldn’t suggest that a single OCR cut could make this degree of difference to the economic outlook. Rather, we think this shows how downbeat firms had become earlier in the year. We had noticed a distinct souring in the mood amongst businesses at the prospect that interest rate cuts might be another year or so away, as the RBNZ had been signalling in its February and May forecasts. With the economy having already been effectively flat for the last year and a half, the prospect of having to “survive until ‘25” would have been daunting for many.

While the outlook may be looking brighter, businesses are still doing it tough right now. A net 23% said that their output was down on a year ago, only slightly better than the net 24% in July. A net 15% said that their staff levels were down on a year ago, compared to a net 20% last month.

The improvement in confidence also came with a note of caution on the inflation front. Firm’s expectations of general inflation fell further from 3.2% to 2.9%, the lowest reading since July 2021. However, their own pricing intentions ticked up slightly for a second month, and their expectations for wages and other costs held steady.

The RBNZ emphasised the recent weakness of high-frequency activity indicators in its decision to cut the OCR in August. And indeed there was a marked deterioration across a range of measures for the June month. However, the updates for July and beyond have generally improved since then. We don’t think this will derail further OCR cuts in the months ahead, but the lift in business confidence along with other measures should see the market scale back the odds of larger 50bp moves.

Source: ACTIONFOREX

The AUD/USD pair trades on a stronger note around 0.6790 on Thursday during the Asian trading hours. The hotter-than-expected Australian CPI inflation data push back the expectation of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and provide some support to the Aussie. 

Australia’s private capital spending dropped by 2.2% in the second quarter (Q2) from an increase of 1.0% in the previous quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Thursday. This figure was below the estimation of 1.0%. Meanwhile, spending on buildings and structures slid by 3.8%, while plant and machinery declined by 0.5%. 

The Australian inflation data on Wednesday appeared insufficient to trigger the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) rate cut expectations, which has lifted the Aussie against the USD. The country’s monthly CPI inflation eased to 3.5% from 3.8% in June, but higher than expectations of 3.5%. Investors will take more cues from the Australian Retail Sales, which are due on Friday.

 The US Federal Reserve (Fed) signaled that lower interest rates are finally on the horizon, which weighs on the USD broadly. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at Jackson Hole last week that “the time has come for policy to adjust.” However, the weakness in the job market is also playing a role in nudging the Fed to ease borrowing costs. The US Nonfarm Payrolls for August next week will be closely watched. Later on Thursday, traders will focus on the US GDP growth numbers for the second quarter in the second estimate, which is forecast to expand by 2.8%. 

Source: FXSTREET

Argentina plans to double its mining exports from $4 billion to $10 billion as soon as 2027 on the back of new lithium projects set to come online soon, combined with a renewed effort to expand copper output and exports.

Newly installed Mining Secretary Luis Lucero told Reuters on Wednesday that Argentina is preparing to become a key lithium and copper supplier for the world, with electric vehicle demand poised to put the country at the top of the mining beneficiaries list. 

For lithium, the country–now governed by free-market libertarian President Javier Milei–Argentina is currently the world’s fourth-largest producer, after Chile and China, but hopes that a lineup of new projects will project it to the top spot. 

"Argentina has an important window of opportunity with lithium and copper to be a supplier in the international trade of these metals," Lucero said in written responses to Reuters. 

Lucero told Reuters that Argentina is gunning for an annual output of 200,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent either by late 2025 or early 2026, ramping up to 250,000 tons annually beyond that and turning lithium into its biggest mineral export. 

Questions have remained about global lithium demand, particularly amid a ramp-up of production in China that has created large stockpiles. Analysts continue to caution that technology may not be developing as rapidly as lithium stockpiles, and new battery technology may end up overriding lithium as a key element. 

These words of caution, however, have not stopped Big Oil from dipping its toes in lithium, with ExxonMobil last month signing a preliminary deal to provide lithium to South Korea’s SK On battery manufacturer, shortly after it started drilling for lithium in Arkansas.

Source: OILPRICE

The Ukrainian military claimed on Wednesday to have downed a Russian fighter jet over eastern Ukraine as Russia stepped up retaliation in Ukraine’s occupied eastern region shortly after Kyiv set another Russian oil depot on fire in a strike deep into Russian territory. 

Early on Wednesday, a Ukrainian drone attack set a Russian oil depot on fire over 100 miles from the Ukrainian border in the Rostov region. No casualties have been reported, and at the time of writing, firefighters were still trying to extinguish the blaze, according to Ukrainian media reports. 

Ukraine also attacked the Zenit oil depot, which houses an oil products reservoir, over 700 miles away in the Kirov region. Kyiv ties both depots to Moscow’s military-industrial complex. 

Shortly afterwards, Ukraine claimed to have shot down an Su-25 “Frogfoot” fighter jet over Ukraine’s eastern occupied Donetsk region. 

The latest escalation comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to advance his bold incursion into Russian territory that has been ongoing for nearly three weeks now, seeking to go on the offensive after being on the defensive since the March 2022 invasion. 

In Ukraine’s Donbass region, Russia is intensifying its offensive, with the Kyiv Post describing Ukrainian forces on this front “outgunned” and outnumbered. Citing Zelensky, the Kyiv Post said that reinforcements were in the process of being deployed, and two towns had already fallen to Russian forces. 

Earlier this week, Russia launched some 200 missiles at Ukraine, targeting energy installations, while Polish media report that Warsaw has deployed aircraft to defend Polish airspace against the onslaught, and a U.S. airbase in Germany remains on full alert in a state of preparedness. Parts of Kyiv were rendered without power and water earlier this week as a result of the Russian barrage. 

Source: OILPRICE

Market picture

The cryptocurrency market has plunged 6% to a capitalisation of $2.08 trillion, its lowest level in nine days. Bitcoin is falling in line with the broader trend, while Ethereum and Solana are down 8.4% and 7.3%, respectively. Gold has also experienced an almost synchronised sell-off, losing around 1%, but equity markets remain generally positive and hopeful.

Bitcoin fell below $58K in thinly liquid trading early Wednesday afternoon but later recovered to $59K by the start of active trading in Europe. The sell-off intensified after a failed attempt to break above $65K early Monday afternoon, taking the price back below its 200- and 50-day moving averages. The first cryptocurrency may be heading towards the lower end of the trading range as it heads towards $54K. The market appears to be largely dragged down by automatic stop orders during light trading hours. Such sell-offs often take leveraged traders out of the market but also attract long-term buyers on dips.

Ethereum briefly dipped below $2400, its lowest level since 8 August. There is a risk that this week’s sell-off is a second leg lower, following the collapse and subsequent consolidation of previous weeks. A drop below $2100 could confirm this hypothesis.

News background

CryptoQuant doubted that the bullish scenario would materialise soon due to the activation of large sellers. The bitcoin futures market also shows that traders are cautious.

According to Henley & Partners’ Crypto Wealth Report 2024, the number of investors holding at least one million dollars in cryptos reached 172,300, 95% more than a year earlier.

The trustee of Celsius, a bankrupt lending platform, distributed $2.5 billion in digital assets and fiat to creditors, paying off 93% of the company’s financial obligations.

Mining company Rhodium Enterprises filed for bankruptcy with debts of up to $100 million.