When the price of oil trends downward, so do the major oil stocks. Not that surprising except that right now, the companies are putting in lower lows on the price charts while light crude oil itself is holding above a September low. Without speculating about all of the reasons for this (the Middle East? lower interest rates? the new moon?), here’s a close look at the patterns established by the movement of price. West Texas Intermediate Crude (continuous contract). Starting with the price of oil itself, you can see the early April peak, how it dropped from there and how…

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A, BRK/B) reported earnings of $26.3 billion in the third quarter versus a loss of $12.8 billion in the same quarter of 2023. Operating earnings, which remove the distortion from market changes and better reflect the firm’s earnings power, fell by 6% for the quarter versus 2023. Providing an illustration of the value from share repurchases, per-share operating income for the year-to-date increased by 15% compared to 2023, while operating earnings grew by 14%. Warren Buffett leads Berkshire as CEO and Chairman with Greg Abel, Vice Chairman of Non-insurance, and Ajit Jain, Vice Chairman of Insurance. Berkshire’s most…

“It feels like this is the worst,” says Atlanta-based advisor Margaret Wright of Truist Financial. “But I remind clients that we’ve been here before. We just need to be that unemotional voice of reason—that’s a lot of the reason why people hire advisors.” Spuds Powell, a managing director at $65 billion RIA Kayne Anderson Rudnick in California prefers in person meetings with clients rather than phone calls and his calendar has been filled.“At times like these with heightened levels of nervousness, over-communication is really important,”says Powell. “I’ve always felt that my most important role is to serve as financial psychologist…

Within the S&P 500, 170 companies reported earnings last week, and 75% of S&P 500 firms reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter. The pace of the third-quarter earnings season begins slow, but 102 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report. The Magnificent 7, consisting of Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (META), Amazon.com (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), NVIDIA (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Tesla (TSLA), featured heavily in last week’s earnings. Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple reported better-than-expected earnings. Tesla reported much better-than-expected earnings the previous week, and NVIDIA won’t report until late November. Because these companies are a critical driver of earnings…