Let’s get down to it. Here’s what Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) sold in the most recent quarter, according to Tuesday’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission:  1 million shares of Carmax (NYSE: KMX) 19.7 million shares of… Read More

Picture this: A congressional staffer laden with a massive, multivolume set of books containing the president’s 2011 budget. We all saw this a couple weeks ago, when Mr. Obama released his blueprint for the government’s next fiscal year.   It’s a ridiculous… Read More

Every company has a life cycle. Some, like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) or Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), seemingly come out of nowhere to dominate their industries. Others, like Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED) or General Electric (NYSE: GE), have delivered steady returns to shareholders for decades. But let’s face it:… Read More

Powerful factors are aligning. These forces clearly point to an increase in the price of oil. Consider: Worldwide petroleum use is increasing. A slight pullback caused by the recession notwithstanding, global demand for oil is on the rise as China and other emerging-market countries… Read More

Throughout the 1990s tech boom, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) made life miserable for any other firm trying to sell computers. Its lean operations enabled it to generate solid profits even as price wars kept most rivals’ bottom lines in the red. First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) has taken a page from Dell’s… Read More

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently cut the nation’s biofuel output quota for 2010. It wasn’t a token cut, either. It was a -94% reduction in cellulosic ethanol, to 6.5 million gallons, from 100 million gallons. (Cellulosic ethanol… Read More

Certain stocks are either loved or hated. Investors shun them when sales and profits are sliding, yet become quickly enamored when results start to improve. But any rebound in a company’s operating picture can come in fits and starts, so when speed bumps emerge in the story, momentum-chasing investors tend… Read More

If you’ve ever been to Mexico, then Carlos Slim owes you a gracias. It’s almost impossible to go a day in this country without spending a peso in one of his business. Slim is the third richest person in the world, behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffett,… Read More

Investors have suffered through 14 bear market plunges in the post-WWII era. Fortunately, those declines have been followed by 14 bull markets. The bounce-backs are typically far more powerful, but predicting the inflection points… Read More