At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting on Saturday 3 May, Warren Buffett announced that he would step down as CEO at the end of 2025.
A reminder: he’s 94, and he’s spent 60 years leading the company...
He’s earned the Oracle nickname
Since Warren took control of Berkshire in 1965, the stock has delivered exceptional performance, with an average annual return of 19.9%.
If you’re not sure what Berkshire Hathaway does, you can read the article I wrote about it.
But what impresses me most about this announcement is the timing.
He’s leaving after putting Berkshire in the best possible position for what comes next.
Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha", saw events coming and acted with remarkable clarity.
Shortly before Donald Trump’s election in November 2024, he sold a large share of Berkshire’s stock holdings, notably Apple and other giants.
He then put the cash into US Treasury bills.
The result: he avoided the rollercoaster we’ve been through in recent months with Donald Trump’s announcements.
Berkshire Hathaway now holds around 5.1% of the US Treasury bill market, worth more than $300 billion.
Warren’s successor has already been announced and will take over in 2026.
As you might expect, investors didn’t take the news well.
Berkshire shares fell more than 5% after markets opened, though they’ve since stabilised.
And what about the bull run?
Today could be the day everything changes. Or not, my friends.
By this evening, we’ll know whether the Fed has finally decided to cut its policy rates.
If it hasn’t, we’ll need to stay strong. Honestly, nothing else seems likely to get US markets moving again in the short term.
And we know how it goes: when US markets stall, the rest of the world struggles too.
Personally, I’m sceptical.
I find it hard to believe that Jerome Powell and his team will give in to Donald Trump’s pressure.
Especially since US markets have already recovered a little despite the recent turbulence caused by his many tariff announcements, as the S&P 500 chart shows.
My reading of the situation: things seem better, but not enough to justify an immediate rate cut.
And with inflation at risk of accelerating because of tariffs, leaving rates unchanged would make complete sense for the Fed.
So we may see the crypto market stabilise and keep moving forward, but slowly.
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