In August of this year, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, with a market cap of over one trillion US dollars, became the first non-technology company in the United States to join the "trillion-dollar club".

Berkshire Hathaway's stock price has accumulated a 23.8% increase this year, outperforming the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq index.

On the occasion of the pullback in Berkshire Hathaway's stock price after reaching a new high, Ajit Jain, Vice Chairman and head of the insurance business, made the largest reduction in holdings in nearly 40 years.

1

Buffett's main deputy cashed out $0.139 billion.

Filings from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that on September 9th, Ajit Jain sold 200 shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock at a price of $695,417.65, cashing out $0.139 billion, equivalent to about 0.99 billion RMB.

After completing this transaction, Ajit Jain himself still holds 61 shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A stock. In addition, his family trust holds 55 shares, and the non-profit organization Jain Foundation holds 50 shares. This means that on September 9th, Ajit Jain sold nearly 55% of his holdings, marking the largest sell-off since he joined Berkshire Hathaway in 1986.

According to public information, Ajit Jain joined Berkshire in 1986 and is responsible for the group's insurance business. He was appointed Vice Chairman of the Insurance Company in 2018 and is considered to be one of the key aides to Warren Buffett. He has been in a key position for nearly 40 years, and Buffett speaks highly of him.

It is worth mentioning that although Berkshire manages more than 400 subsidiaries and employs nearly 0.4 million employees, the number of staff at its headquarters is very limited. There is news that Berkshire's headquarters only has 25 employees.

In 2017, Buffett said that Ajit Jain may have earned more money for Berkshire than himself, and he said, "If there really is another Ajit, you can replace me with him without hesitation. Let's make a trade."

In 2014, Buffett publicly announced that Abel and Ajit Jain would be his qualified successors. Although it is said that Abel was ultimately chosen, Buffett promoted Ajit Jain to Vice Chairman of the Insurance Business and also joined the board of directors in 2018.

Subsequently, Abel and Ajit Jain gradually stepped into the spotlight of Berkshire's annual shareholders meeting.

Why did Ajit Jain's large-scale shareholding reduction cause such a market uproar?

It is still unclear to the public why Ajit Jain sold a large amount of Berkshire's stocks, but at this point, it is indeed not a bullish signal for the U.S. stock market sentiment.

Recently, Berkshire's stock price has continued to rise, with a market cap exceeding 1 trillion dollars for the first time, making it the eighth company to enter the 'trillion-dollar club'. At the same time, Buffett has also slowed down the pace of Berkshire's buyback. Therefore, the market speculates that Ajit's shareholding reduction may be due to the belief that the stock price is no longer cheap.

It is worth mentioning that Buffett has sold a large amount of US stocks in the past few quarters, and the rare amount of cash holdings has caused some 'tension' in the market.

Previously, Buffett had significantly sold off the heavily weighted stock Apple, and more recently has consecutively sold another heavily weighted stock, Bank of America. More macro data shows that Buffett has net reduced stocks for the seventh consecutive quarter, including a net reduction in stock value of 76 billion US dollars in the second quarter.

At the same time, Buffett's cash reserves have risen to a staggering 276.9 billion dollars, reaching a record high and accounting for 24.97% of the total company assets.

The market generally believes that over the past few quarters, Buffett's series of actions seem to be a defensive measure, preparing for a more significant pullback in the US stock market.

CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said: 'If you look at Berkshire's overall situation and macroeconomic data, the conclusion is that Berkshire is taking defensive measures.'

2

Some leading Hong Kong stocks have quietly risen 30% this year.

Hong Kong listed companies led by Tencent have been increasing their share buybacks this year, and the leading companies are quietly rising.

On Friday, during the Hong Kong stock market, Alibaba's stock price rose 1.74% to HKD 84.65, reaching a new high since September 2023.

Data shows that Alibaba's Hong Kong shares were officially included in the Hong Kong Stock Connect on September 10th. On that day, Alibaba's Hong Kong shares rose by 4%, and net southbound funds have been buying Alibaba for 4 consecutive days, totaling HKD 16.423 billion.

In the past 4 months, Joseph Tsai has increased his shareholding of Alibaba by approximately 1.45 million shares. According to the HKEX disclosure, as of August 28th, Alibaba's Co-founder and Chairman Joseph Tsai held 0.27675 billion shares of the company, accounting for approximately 1.44%. As previously disclosed, as of May 20th, Joseph Tsai held 0.2753 billion shares of Alibaba.

This means that Joseph Tsai increased his shareholding of Alibaba by 1.45 million shares during this period, with a cumulative cost of approximately HKD 0.11 billion based on the average closing price of HKD 76.23.

In addition, H&H managed by Steven Zhang has been increasing its holdings of Alibaba for three consecutive quarters. In the second quarter of this year, it increased its holdings by 0.4615 million shares, and in the first quarter, it increased its holdings by 0.886 million shares. By the end of the second quarter, its fund held $0.454 billion worth of Alibaba's US stocks.

HHLR under Hillhouse Capital Management also increased its position in Alibaba in the second quarter of this year. By the end of the second quarter, its fund held $0.387 billion worth of Alibaba's US stocks.

As of September 13th close, Alibaba's Hong Kong stock has risen by 11.85% year-to-date; Tencent Holdings has risen by 29.15% year-to-date; Meituan has risen by 50.18% year-to-date; Xiaomi Group has risen by 23.21% year-to-date.

In a sluggish market environment, some leading companies in the Hong Kong stock market have risen, which is partly related to the company's own buybacks.

The scale of buybacks in the Hong Kong stock market has increased significantly this year, with a total buyback amount of over 200 billion Hong Kong dollars from the beginning of the year to date. The buyback amounts for 2022 and 2023 were 131.3 billion Hong Kong dollars and 179.1 billion Hong Kong dollars, respectively.

Tencent Holdings has repurchased 81.4 billion Hong Kong dollars year-to-date, HSBC Holdings has repurchased 30.084 billion Hong Kong dollars year-to-date, and Meituan and AIA have repurchased more than 20 billion Hong Kong dollars year-to-date. Kuaishou, Xiaomi Group, and Dongyue Group have all repurchased more than 3 billion Hong Kong dollars year-to-date.

(The content of this article is a list of objective data and information and does not constitute any investment advice)

Industry insiders believe that a buyback wave often occurs at the bottom of the market. When the market is at a low point, companies repurchasing shares are sending a signal that their value is undervalued and demonstrating confidence in the company, which helps boost market sentiment.

3

The US government's net interest expenses amounted to $843 billion.

It increased by 33.8% compared to the previous year.

When it comes to borrowing money, the US government really knows how to play.

Previously, the total US debt exceeded $35 trillion, and this number has skyrocketed in the past few years. It went from $20 trillion in 2017 to over $35 trillion in 2024, achieving nearly double growth in just 7 years.

However, the downside of having a large debt is the increasing interest pressure, which is all due to inflation. In recent years, the Federal Reserve has adopted aggressive interest rate policies to suppress inflation, resulting in a continuous increase in the US government's debt expenses.

The US Treasury Department's report last Thursday showed that for the first 11 months of the 2024 fiscal year until August, the US federal government's fiscal deficit reached nearly $1.9 trillion, a whopping 24% increase compared to the previous year. Some analysts predict that the deficit for the entire fiscal year may reach a new high, excluding the pandemic year.

Among them, the substantial increase in the deficit was mainly due to the continuous increase in the cost of debt interest, which accounts for a significant proportion of US government spending.

Historical data shows that in the 2023 fiscal year, the US government's fiscal deficit is about 1.7 trillion US dollars, with net interest expenses on total debt of about 659 billion US dollars, accounting for as high as 15% of fiscal spending.

As of August, within the 11 months of this fiscal year, net interest expenses have reached 843 billion US dollars, a staggering 33.8% year-on-year increase, accounting for approximately 13.4% of fiscal spending.

At the same time, the interest cost for the 11 months of this fiscal year has reached approximately 1.05 trillion US dollars, surpassing the 1 trillion US dollar mark for the first time, with a year-on-year surge of 30%.

To combat inflation, the Federal Reserve has continued to raise interest rates, leading to an increase in the cost of US government debt and a continuous increase in debt repayment pressure. The US government's debt interest rate at the end of August is 3.35%, reaching a new high since 2009.

Previously, prominent US entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, bluntly stated that the excessive spending by the US government could lead the country to the brink of bankruptcy.

Some analysts predict that the interest expense on US debt may become the government's largest expenditure item (exceeding Social Security) by the end of 2024, increasing to 1.6 trillion US dollars, and reaching 1.7 trillion US dollars by April 2025.