👊 Buffett and Apple's bust-up

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway went off Apple | Michael Burry backed Chinese stocks, against all odds | [Finimize](   TOGETHER WITH   Hi {NAME}, here's what you need to know for February 16th in 3:12 minutes.   🪙 Bitcoin just hit $50,000 for the first time since late 2021, only a few weeks after a much-talked-about 20% dip. So join us for [The Inevitable Future of Cryptocurrency]( next Tuesday, and find out how to predict the unpredictable. [Grab your free ticket]( Today's big stories - Buffett ditched a ton of stocks, and Apple was firmly on the chopping block - Another bank sounded a warning about commercial real estate – [Read Now]( - Michael Burry, of “The Big Short” fame, doubled down on two Chinese tech stocks while the rest of the world retreated Early Ripe, Early Forgotten [Early Ripe, Early Forgotten] What’s going on here? Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway [sold]( ten million Apple shares last quarter, presumably determined not to let one bad stock ruin the whole bunch. What does this mean? Buffett first joined the legions of Apple aficionados in 2016, buying shares that turned out to be among his best, now making up around a fifth of Berkshire’s entire portfolio. And while Buffett did sell some of that stock a few years back, he said the decision was “probably a mistake” in 2021. One worth repeating, apparently, because Buffett just revealed that he trimmed around 1% of his Apple shares toward the end of last year. Mind you, that means Berkshire’s still the proud owner of a 5.9% stake, worth roughly $167 billion. The Oracle of Omaha was more ruthless elsewhere, slashing Berkshire’s stakes in HP and Paramount by 78% and 32% respectively and ditching eight companies completely during the year, including General Motors, UPS, and Procter & Gamble. Why should I care? For markets: The Apple fell a little far from the tree. Apple handed Microsoft the accolade of the most valuable US company earlier this year, after regulators started scrutinizing App Store policies and sales slipped in China – one of the firm’s biggest markets. Now, investors haven’t ditched the favorite of their five-a-day just yet, but if Apple can’t shake off those qualms, they may well get their fix elsewhere. The bigger picture: Buffett’s tapped in. Buffett stayed mum on any of Berkshire Hathaway’s brand-new additions, but he can’t hide his obvious penchant for the oil and gas sector. Berkshire Hathaway bought a bigger stake in industry giants Chevron and Occidental Petroleum during the final quarter of last year. Some psychic powers may have been at play: Shell predicted on Wednesday that the world will want 50% more liquified natural gas by 2040, as developing Asian countries – not least, China – tuck into the cleaner alternative to traditional fuel. You might also like: [How to buy cheap stocks – and why you'd want to.]( Copy to share story: [( 🙋 [Ask a question](mailto:questions@finimize.com?body=Ask us a question: Where are you writing from? Let us know and we'll mention it when we reply.&noapp=true&subject=Early Ripe, Early Forgotten&utm_campaign=daily-global-16-02-2024&utm_source=email) Analyst Take Worries About Commercial Real Estate Are Rising To The Top Floor [Worries About Commercial Real Estate Are Rising To The Top Floor]( [Photo of Stéphane Renevier, CFA] Stéphane Renevier, CFA, Analyst US commercial real estate is casting a [skyscraper-sized shadow]( over its lenders worldwide. Now, investors are worried about a potential crisis – and [the impact on the banks that have money involved](. German lending giant Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, for one, hasn't quite managed to reassure investors. Banks from New York to Japan are [dealing]( with similar fallout, too, lending – pun intended – credibility to fears about a broader contagion. That’s today’s Insight: [why the risks in this market could be skyscraper-high](. [Read or listen to the Insight here]( SPONSORED BY CROWDCUBE AND FUEL VENTURES Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. [Take 2 minutes to learn more.]( Be a VC for a tenth of the normal cost You usually need a very important person’s phone number to [become a venture capitalist](. That, or a bank account that could pay a small company’s payroll – literally. Not anymore: you can now [buy into Fuel Ventures' SEIS fund]( – essentially a fund that invests in very early-stage companies and provides up to 50% tax relief – from just £2,000, roughly a tenth of the normal entry price. [Fuel Ventures]( has been backing the most ambitious entrepreneurs for over ten years, with solid results: their EIS Funds sold ContentCal to Adobe for $110 million and Capdesk to Carta for $88 million. And now thanks to Crowdcube and Fuel Ventures' collaboration, you can [be there for the next special find](. Venture capitalist aspirations: achieved. [Find Out More]( Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. [Take 2 minutes to learn more.]( When you support our sponsors, you support us. Thanks for that. Burry The Hatchet [Burry The Hatchet] What’s going on here? The rest of the world has been vexed by Chinese tech stocks, but “The Big Short” star Michael Burry proved that he doesn’t hold a [grudge](. What does this mean? Michael Burry tends to zig when everyone else zags, making him the sort of maverick that would inspire a star-studded feature film introducing technical trading to the masses. This time, his investment firm Scion Asset Management upped its [stake]( in ecommerce giants Alibaba and JD.com by 50% and 60% respectively. That, at a time when most investors are cleaning their hands of Chinese stocks. Burry did fall in line when it came to US tech, mind you, stopping a bet against an exchange-traded fund that included Nvidia, and buying more shares in Alphabet and Amazon. Why should I care? For you: Time for show and tell. Any investor that trades for clients and manages over $100 million has to show the US Securities and Exchange Commission their stateside stocks every quarter. That intel becomes the publicly available “13F filings”, which give the rest of the world a peek into where the rich and well-connected are investing. Any copycats need to have their wits about them, though. The dossier only shows stocks that trade on US exchanges and updates with a 45-day delay, so you don’t always get the full picture. For markets: Buffett’s big belief. Investors have been giving Chinese stocks a wide berth, sending them into a freefall that’s lasted since 2021. After all, with a seemingly endless property market crisis, hard-to-fix deflation, and mounting political tensions, the country hardly seems like a safe bet. Bear in mind, though, that Buffett has always said to “be greedy when others are fearful”. So if you believe that China just needs some time, this could be your chance to nab a bargain: even big-name stocks may now be selling at discounts too low to ignore. You might also like: [Chinese investments could flourish in the Year Of The Dragon.]( Copy to share story: [( 🙋 [Ask a question](mailto:questions@finimize.com?body=Ask us a question: Where are you writing from? 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