Week in review 11/17/08 to 11/22/08
Crazy market
If you have not paid attention to the market lately (for whatever reason), yesterday and today’s market should have got your attention, because of its huge volatility: big down yesterday and big up today. Note yesterday Paulson spoke at California and today’s news is NY Fed chief Tim Geithner is reported picked by Obama to run the treasury department. But these are just the reasons on the surface. The real reason, I think, is the real economy in the world is shadowed by the credit crisis. There are enormous fear in the market, as we can saw from the panic sell in the last trading hour yesterday and panic short covering last hour today.
Also in the news, the bailout of Detroit big 3 car makers have been put on hold; and Citi Group (NYSE: C) has under pressure as its stock dropped below $4.
Buffett also makes mistake
It is not pretty week for the Oracle of Omaha either. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) stock dropped more than 10% last week on the reports of its surging CDS levels (Reuters). I read this artticle from seekingalpha, by Whitney Tilson (who holds Berkshire A shares).
I also doubt those long term stock market Index (expires in 2019 to 2030) puts will lose money eventually, but the CDS positions (expire in 2009 to 2013) will lose some money. This is not really surprising because Buffett is also human, he makes mistakes too. I remember he lost money on currency trades a while back.