Warren Buffett Is Stepping Down. What’s Next for Berkshire Hathaway?
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What does Warren Buffett stepping down mean for Berkshire Hathaway?
The question is always going to be Warren Buffett's presence there. To what extent does that create a halo or a premium in the value of Berkshire as a company? We'll see.
And the Trump administration plans to offer $1,000 payments to migrants who leave the country. It's Monday, May 5th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We kick off today with the U.S. economy. President Trump is downplaying concerns over further economic turmoil. He's stepping up pressure on Congress to pass a tax and spending bill which would extend cuts made during the first Trump administration. And according to a senior administration official, the White House aims to announce at least one deal with a country seeking to escape higher tariffs in the coming week. This person said that the president and his advisors are feeling somewhat more confident about the economy amid some signs of resiliency, including a streak of stock market gains and a better-than-anticipated jobs report on Friday. Many economists still expect a trade-induced slowdown later this year. Employers, too, are worried.
T. Rowe Price, JetBlue, and Polaris are just some of the companies whose leadership in recent earnings calls say they're slowing or pausing hiring due to economic uncertainty. Employment reporter Lauren Weber explains why companies are in this wait-and-see mode.
They're basically saying, look, we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know the impact of tariffs yet. And until there's a little more clarity, they're being very, very cautious on hiring. The hard data still looks okay. But what we hear anecdotally and what you see in some of these comments from companies and executives, and also what surveys are saying about consumer confidence or business confidence, they show a much more worrisome picture.
And you can hear more about how consumers are feeling about the U.S. economy and what it means for food and beverage companies in a bonus episode we released earlier today. You'll find What's News and Earnings just an episode earlier in this podcast feed. The big stock rebound showed some signs of exhaustion today. President Trump's planned 100% tariff on films produced overseas weighed on entertainment company stocks early in the day. Shares in Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount fell 2% or more in morning trading before recovering slightly. Details are scant on how the administration intends to implement the policy. Berkshire Hathaway, whose CEO Warren Buffett announced over the weekend that he would be stepping down at the end of the year, saw its shares fall about 5%. More on that later in the show. Major U.S. indexes fell. The Dow dropped about a quarter of a percent, and the S&P 500 dipped roughly 0.6% as both indexes broke nine-day winning streaks. The Nasdaq fell about three-quarters of a percent.
OpenAI has called off a controversial effort to change which entity controls its artificial intelligence business. The maker of ChatGPT will remain under the control of a nonprofit organization, the one that briefly ousted CEO Sam Altman in 2023. OpenAI said today it will transform its for-profit subsidiary into a public benefit corporation that is controlled by the nonprofit parent. And Skechers is going private. The footwear company's founder and chief executive has agreed to sell Skechers to the private equity firm 3G Capital in a deal worth about $9.4 billion. The deal offers shareholders $63 in cash for each share they hold. Recently, Skechers shares had tumbled from around $75 in January to below $50. Today, shares in the company surged nearly 25% to over $61 apiece.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What does Warren Buffett stepping down mean for Berkshire Hathaway?
0:43–5:58
2
How has China's Made in China 2025 plan affected global competition?
5:58–7:19
3
What are the implications of U.S. tariffs on China?
7:19
4
What economic concerns is the Trump administration facing?
1:24–3:17
5
How are companies responding to economic uncertainty?
3:17–10:04
6
What strategies are being discussed for U.S.-China trade negotiations?
10:04–13:40
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from WSJ What’s News
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