Warren Buffett Buys Amazon Stock; Will He Change His Mind On ‘Rat Poison’ Bitcoin? - CCN

By CCN.com: Berkshire Hathaway just bought its first Amazon shares, Berkshire founder and CEO Warren Buffett revealed to CNBC Thursday night. On the eve of an annual Berkshire shareholders meeting in Omaha, Buffett told CNBC that someone at Berkshire’s asset management desk just invested in some Amazon shares, but “it wasn’t me.”

“One of the fellows in the office that manage money… bought some Amazon so it will show up in the 13F.”

Amazon stock purchase a first for Warren Buffet

Warren Buffett is wrong about Bitcoin – just like he was wrong about Amazon. | Source: Shutterstock

The stake in Amazon is a first for the multinational investment conglomerate. Although Warren Buffett has had strong words of praise for Jeff Bezos and his company’s business, the Oracle of Omaha has mysteriously held off on taking a stake in the e-commerce giant since its IPO in 1997. Buffet jokingly reassured his personality isn’t changing:

“I’ve been a fan, and I’ve been an idiot for not buying. But I want you to know it’s no personality changes taking place.”

The about face on Amazon isn’t completely out of the blue. When asked in 2017 on CNBC’s Squawk Box why he hasn’t invested in Amazon shares yet, Buffett gave a one word answer: “Stupidity.” Last year in an interview with CNBC, Warren Buffett said:

“The truth is that I’ve watched Amazon from the start and I think what Jeff Bezos has done is something close to a miracle, and the problem is if I think something is going to be a miracle I tend not to bet on it.”

Warren Buffett ‘Blew it’ by not investing in Amazon

Warren Buffett told CNBC he “blew it” by not investing in Amazon earlier. | Source: Shutterstock

Then after CNBC’s Becky Quick asked Buffett if he would finally jump into Amazon stocks as he did with Apple 36 years after the computer and smartphone company’s initial public offering, Buffett revealed that he has been held back by the sting of regret that he didn’t bet big on Amazon at his earliest opportunity. He says he “blew it.”

“It’ll probably be tough. I’ve probably got so many psychological problems with the fact that I didn’t do it that it’s very hard to do it.”

Warren Buffett’s slow and steady approach to investing has certainly won the race of investment finance for him. When he finally relented in 2016 after years of waiting to invest in Apple, Berkshire Hathaway went all in with a $1 billion surprise blitz of 9.8 million Apple shares during a downturn in Apple sales and share prices.

Could Buffet change his mind on bitcoin?

Warren Buffett has called Bitcoin “rat poison squared” in the past, but he does appear very willing lately to reassess his investment positions. | Source: Shutterstock

That could certainly make you wonder exactly how much “some Amazon” means when Warren Buffett says it. Although Buffett’s warded off any speculation that he’s undergoing any personality changes, if he’s finally opened up to Apple and Amazon in the space of three years, maybe the Oracle will change his mind about Bitcoin too. Yes, despite labeling the cryptocurrency ‘rat poision‘ a year ago.

After all, Bitcoin has enjoyed massive year over year growth in its annual price floor, and a flourishing, mature, multi-billion dollar industry at an advancing level of market adoption has grown up around Bitcoin. At this point, the original cryptocurrency is looking more and more like the kind of sound, conservative investments for long term growth that Buffet likes.

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2019-05-03 07:19:51Z
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Beyond Meat is offering free food at Carl's Jr., Del Taco and other restaurants Friday - USA TODAY

Kelly Tyko USA TODAY

Published 1:01 AM EDT May 3, 2019

Beyond Meat is celebrating its successful launch on the stock market with its first-ever Beyond Day Friday.

The alternative meat brand is giving away free food at select restaurants that serve its products including Carl's Jr. and Del Taco. It's also giving out $3 off coupons to use at grocery stores.

“On this day we acknowledge the hard work, the journey so far and the long road ahead,” Beyond Meat posted on its website. “And to say thanks, we’ve partnered with some of your favorite restaurants to provide FREE BEYOND MEAT menu options! Grab a friend and Go Beyond – on us.”

On Thursday, Beyond Meat debuted on the Nasdaq and its shares more than doubled. The purveyor of plant-based burgers and sausages raised about $240 million Thursday, selling 9.6 million shares at $25 each.  Those shares rose 163% to close at $65.75.

May deals: Where to get free food and other discounts this month

Not so impossible: Burger King plans to release plant-based Impossible Whopper nationwide by end of year

The demand for plant-based products is growing as more people want to reduce meat consumption because of health concerns, Beyond Meat's founder and CEO Ethan Brown recently told USA TODAY.

The company's initial public offering comes amid growing consumer interest in plant-based foods for their presumed health and environmental benefits.

Vegan options are growing: Here's where to find meat-free items

Real Meals: Burger King counters Happy Meals with options if you are 'pissed' or 'salty'

Friday's deals

The following restaurants are offering promotions, while supplies last. To be on the safe side, check with your location before heading out.

Carl's Jr.: Get a free Beyond Famous Star with Cheese when you say “Happy Birthday Beyond” at the register and buy a medium or large soft drink, from 6 a.m. to close Friday.

Del Taco: Get a free Beyond Taco or Beyond Avocado Taco with any order on the Del App Friday. Download the app at www.deltaco.com/app.

Bareburger: From 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, get a free Beyond Burger with the purchase of a drink and a side when you show the Bareburger app on your phone.

Veggie Grill: From 2 to 5 p.m. Friday, get a free VG Beyond Burger when you buy a drink. Must be a VG Rewards app member and you’ll get a code to activate in the app through email. Download the app at www.veggiegrill.com/rewards

Epic Burger: From 4 to 7 p.m., get a free Beyond Burger when you say “Go Beyond” and buy a drink and side.

Coupon: Go to www.beyondmeat.com/beyondday Friday to get a printable coupon for $3 off one Beyond Meat product. Find stores where the products are sold at www.beyondmeat.com.

Contributing: Associated Press

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko

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2019-05-03 04:33:00Z
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Tesla (TSLA) Stock Surges as Elon Musk Ponders Bond Sale - Hacked

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2019-05-02 14:31:14Z
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Beyond Meat surges 135% in its market debut - CNBC

Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown speaks before ringing the opening bell at Nasdaq MarketSite, May 2, 2019 in New York City.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Beyond Meat shares surged 135% in their market debut, giving the maker of plant-based meat substitutes a market value of $3.52 billion.

The company's opening trade of $46.00 was later than expected, hitting after noon Thursday. Then, after shares soared 125%, trading was paused due to volatility. When trading resumed, the stock rocketed even higher. The company is trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol "BYND."

On Wednesday night, Beyond priced its initial public offering at $25 per share, for an implied market value of $1.46 billion. Its IPO price is on the high end of its expected range of $23 and $25 per share. The El Segunda, California-based company first set the range between $19 to $21 a share.

As more Americans embrace a flexitarian diet, cutting down their meat consumption for health and environmental reasons, plant-based meat substitutes are growing in popularity. Beyond's meat alternatives, which range from fake ground beef to burger patties, are designed to more closely mimic the texture and taste of traditional meat. The gluten- and soy-free products use proteins from peas and faba beans and can be found at grocery stores, as well as restaurants like TGI Fridays, Del Taco and White Castle.

In 2018, Beyond reported revenue of $87.9 million, up 170% from the previous year's net sales of $32.6 million. The company plans to use the proceeds from going public to invest in manufacturing facilities, research and development, and sales and marketing.

Meanwhile, Big Food has taken notice of the trend. In the fall, Nestle will start selling its own plant-based burger to American consumers, branding it the Awesome Burger. Tyson Foods sold its minority stake in Beyond because it wants to sell its own plant-based proteins, according to Axios.

Beyond is the latest company to make its debut on the stock market this year. While some, like Levi Strauss & Co. and Zoom, have thrived since their IPOs, others — such as ride-share giant Lyft — have seen their stock tumble.

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2019-05-02 16:34:07Z
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Mortgage rates tumble as one economist waves the white flag - MarketWatch

iStockphoto

A house in suburban San Diego

Rates for home loans slumped, another reminder of the “lower for longer” conditions that have dogged financial markets since the 2008 financial crisis.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.14% in the May 2 week, Freddie Mac said Thursday. That was down 6 basis points during the week. It snapped a four-week streak of increases for the popular product, the first time it had sustained such a long stretch of gains since last September.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.60%, down from 3.64%. The 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 3.68%, down 9 basis points.

Those rates don’t include fees associated with obtaining mortgage loans.

Fixed-rate mortgages follow the trajectory of the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, +1.26%  . The yield on it and other bonds swooned earlier in the year after the Federal Reserve surprised investors by saying that the case for interest-rate increases had “weakened” because of soft inflation, slower growth, and policy uncertainty.

Then government bonds slid again in March, as fears about slow global growth pushed investors into safe havens. Bond yields fall as price rise.

Related: Mortgage rates plunge at the fastest pace in a decade as growth fears resurface

Freddie Mac’s chief economist, Sam Khater, was a willing participant in MarketWatch’s year-ahead predictions for mortgage rates published last December. Like many analysts, Khater fully expected that 2019 would be the year that financial markets finally returned to “normal,” after years of post-crisis clean-up and unusual one-time events, like political turmoil in 2016 and tax-law changes in 2017.

But earlier this week, Khater threw in the towel and slashed his rate forecast. He now expects the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to average 4.30% throughout the year, down from his earlier forecast of 5.1% – and also down from the 4.54% averaged during 2018.

In an interview, Khater told MarketWatch that his low-rate view is hard to square with a nagging sense that we’re not at the end of the current economic expansion, as many pundits have believed for some time, but in fact closer to the middle, with room to run.

Between a strong consumer sector, healthy corporate balance sheets, market indicators like the yield curve mostly pointing in the right direction, and supportive policy, “when you wrap it all together it looks good,” Khater said.

See: As mortgage rates hold near 14-month lows, what’s a yield curve anyway?

“This been the most unloved economic expansion and bull market,” Khater added. “Because of all the negative headlines, it sometimes clouds our ability to look at the data. I think the ghosts of the Great Recession are lingering in our minds. We’re overly cautious and we keep looking for what’s going to wreck this thing.”

Despite all that, the official Freddie forecast is for no Fed rate changes, up or down, in 2019 or in 2020, which is the furthest out Khater and his team have forecast.

The Fed on Wednesday held interest rates steady and gave no indication it was in a hurry to move rates in either direction.

Read: Fed holds interest rates steady as economy grows at ‘solid rate’ and inflation stays low

(Economists at Freddie’s sister company, Fannie Mae, have forecast one rate increase in 2019, but haven’t looked ahead to 2020 yet.)

Related: Americans are still shunning adjustable-rate mortgages 10 years after the crisis

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2019-05-02 14:08:00Z
CAIiEKmYE_QaJ9wO3UqYgGvT-FgqGAgEKg8IACoHCAowjujJATDXzBUw2JS0AQ

Elon Musk may plan to buy more Tesla shares - CNBC

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1. Elon Musk may plan to buy more Tesla shares  CNBC
2. Tesla shares pop on plan to raise $2 billion from investors, including CEO Elon Musk  CNBC
3. Tesla’s median employee pay vs. the median American in 2018 is surprising  Teslarati
4. Tesla Model 3 Finally Arrives in the UK  HYPEBEAST
5. Tesla (TSLA) files cap raise up to $2.3B, CEO Elon Musk in for $10M  Electrek
6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/05/02/elon-musk-may-plan-to-buy-more-tesla-shares.html

2019-05-02 12:48:56Z
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Tesla raising $2 billion with Elon Musk planning to buy $10 million in stock - CNBC

GP: Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during an event at the site of the company's manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China, on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019.

Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tesla said in a filing on Thursday that it would raise up to $2 billion, with $650 million coming in the form of new equity and $1.35 billion in convertible notes.

CEO Elon Musk signaled the intent to buy about $10 million of the company's stock in the new offering. The total equity offering is for 2.7 million shares of Tesla. Musk's purchase would be 41,896 shares. Before the offering, Musk owned about 20% of Tesla's outstanding shares, worth about $12.6 billion, according to FactSet.

The move comes only a week after Musk deferred on questions about the company raising capital any time soon.

"I don't think raising capital should be a substitute for making the company operate more effectively," Musk told shareholders on the company's quarterly conference call. "I do think there is some merit to raising capital, but this is sort of probably about the right timing."

Musk was pressed by Wall Street analysts on the call on the topic, as Tesla burned through around $2 billion in cash in the first quarter of 2019.

Tesla shares fell earlier in premarket trading when the company put out an initial filing indicating it would be offering a mix of debt and equity securities. The stock then reversed course and was last trading 5.7% higher when a second filing revealed details of the offering, including Musk's interest in buying a block of the new shares.

Musk's purchases have been reliable short-term buy signals for the stock in the past, according to InsiderScore.com. Following the last 5 purchases by Musk, the shares were higher on average by 41% in the next three months, according to InsiderScore.

Shares of the controversial electric automaker have been under pressure lately, down nearly 30% from the beginning of the year. The stock's surge following the filing came from "the fact that they ripped off the band aid and decided to raise the capital," Dan Ives, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC.

"There was growing fears that this company was going to need incremental cash going to the second half of the year. For the first time, they listened to investors and the math doesn't lie in terms of what they needed to do," Ives said. "Now there's a relief because the liquidity issue and the finance concern could be put to rest in the near term."

The offering is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Societe Generale and Wells Fargo.

– CNBC's Yun Li contributed to this report.

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2019-05-02 12:18:40Z
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