(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it every Friday evening in your inbox.)

Optimism that the U.S. conflict with Iran is approaching a resolution helped lift the S&P 500 index to its first close above 7,100.

The benchmark is up more than 9% so far this month as fears about global conflict, earnings, artificial intelligence, and inflation all eased since the S&P 500 hit its lowest level of the year in late March, when it was nearing a 10% correction.

It’s one of the market’s fastest turnarounds in at least 36 years.

But while the overall marketplace was soaring, Berkshire wasn’t doing much of anything, as its A and B shares slipped to month-to-date drops of just under 1%.

At the close on March 31, Berkshire shares were almost even with the S&P with year-to-date losses of around 4.7%.

The day before, Berkshire B was running 1.8 percentage points ahead of the S&P, its biggest lead of the year.

Friday, it closed 9.7 percentage points behind the index, its biggest gap so far in 2026. 

On their own terms, Berkshire shares have not been performing well since they closed at record highs on May 2, 2025, just before Warren Buffett stated he would be stepping down as CEO at the end of that year.

While they are around 3% above their early-August lows, both classes are now down a bit more than 12% since Buffett’s announcement.

Berkshire’s financial history gets an update

With Berkshire’s annual shareholders meeting now just two weeks away, this is the time of year to publish books about Buffett and his organization. This also touches on aspects of investors.

“The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway, Second Edition” will be out on April 28 from Pan Macmillan’s Harriman House.

The update will include a full analysis of the company’s first six decades, covering events through 2024.

Author Adam Mead tells me there will also be some thoughts about 2025 in the introduction.

BUFFETT & BERKSHIRE AROUND THE INTERNET

Some links may require a subscription:

Wall Street Journal on MSN: Greg Abel has been leading Berkshire for 100 days. Things are already changing.

Barron’s on MSN: Berkshire Hathaway’s massive utility business could be worth close to $100 billion

Barron’s on MSN: America’s next great business oracle may not be American. Meet the next Warren Buffett.

Investopedia: What Forces Shaped Warren Buffett’s Path to Wealth? Lessons on Compound Interest and Opportunity

Zacks on Yahoo Finance: Berkshire Taps Yen Bonds: Does This Signal Confidence in Japan?

HIGHLIGHTS FROM CNBC’S BUFFETT ARCHIVE

‘We don’t begrudge the taxes we pay’ (2014)

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger explain why they don’t try to get around paying U.S. taxes.

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: “Berkshire paid $8.9 billion in taxes in 2013. Pfizer is currently contemplating an acquisition that would allow it to move its technical holding corporation overseas and thereby save income tax expense and create shareholder value. Is this something you and Charlie would ever consider if it would create value for Berkshire shareholders?”

WARREN BUFFETT: I think the answer to that is no.

What do you say, Charlie? (Applause)

CHARLIE MUNGER: I think it would be — I think it would be crazy to be as prosperous as Berkshire and get our tax to zero while we remain this prosperous. That would not be a legitimate ideal. (Applause)

WARREN BUFFETT: Yeah.

We could not have done Berkshire in any other country except the United States, either. You know, and just look at what we’ve acquired and everything.

America has, in a very, very, very substantial way, helped Charlie and I become very, very, very rich. (Laughs). Charlie?

CHARLIE MUNGER: I’ve got no complaints. And I look around at this group, I see you at breakfast, it’s a very happy group of citizens.

I don’t think a lot of citizens are gnashing their teeth that somebody else has a little more.

WARREN BUFFETT: But we don’t pay — I don’t want to generate it holier than thou, this stuff. We don’t pay anything beyond that — when we get all through figuring out tax on our 20,000 page-plus return, we just don’t — we don’t add a tip of 20 percent or 15 percent or anything.  (Laughter)

And we do certain transactions which are tax driven. We’re in low-income housing tax credits, which, actually, George Bush 41 congratulated me for. So it’s bipartisan.

We — the wind energy deals we do, the solar deals we do, they are tax driven to — I mean, they won’t generate economic sense otherwise.

But we don’t begrudge the taxes we pay. We’ve earned a lot of wealth while paying U.S. taxes. (Applause)

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

Four weeks

Twelve months

BRK.A stock price: ~$711,558.8

BRK.B stock price: $474.58

BRK.B P/E (TTM): 15.29

Berkshire sector capitalization: $1,023,449,080,531

Berkshire Cash as of Dec. 31: $373.3 billion (Down 2.2% from Sept. 30)

Excluding Rail Cash and Subtracting T-Bills Payable: $369.0 billion (Up 4.1% from Sept. 30)

Berkshire resumed stock repurchases on March 4, 2026, but has not stated whether it made any additional buys after that date.

(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise indicated)

BERKSHIRE’S TOP EQUITY HOLDINGS – Apr. 17, 2026

Berkshire’s top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S. and Japan, by sector value, based on the latest closing prices.

Holdings are as of Sept. 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing on Nov. 14, 2025, except for:

Mitsubishi, which is as of Aug. 28, 2025

Mitsui

The full list of holdings and current economy 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.)

Also, Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire’s website.

— Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch