Berkshire Hathaway 在新任 CEO Greg Abel 下任期后 22 个月内重新启动股份回购，并动用近 4000 亿美元现金。Abel 个人买入了 1530 万美元 Berkshire 股票，几乎等于其预期 2500 万美元年后税酬，并表示在提交 10‑K 后、等待 48 小时将每年重复购回。回购周三启动，是 Abel 作为 CEO 首次授权，市场视为其认为股票低估其内在价值。作为一家 1.1 兆美元集团，Berkshire 通常只在季度报告中披露回购；上一次披露在 2024 年 5 月。向 SEC 的申报称此举为了领导过渡透明化，而 Abel 指出庞大现金堆并不代表缩减交易。
在美国与以色列袭击伊朗后，对冲基金正重新评估新兴市场部位。伊朗事件前，EM 股票今年已上涨 14%，但后来受到美元走强、资金避险流向、二月下旬 Brent 上涨超过 17% 及亚洲、欧洲天然气价格上涨的压力。大型宏观对冲基金主管称 EM 已成为高杠杆单边交易；高盛在战前报告 EM 配置接近五年高点。对于重度进口石油的土耳其而言，若能源价格长期偏高将带来通胀，但外汇储备可能支撑里拉。其他数据是：Blackstone 私募信贷首季净流出 17 亿美元，Elliott 对一家倒闭的英国按揭机构持有约 2 亿英镑曝险；罗浮宫的 Michelangelo-Rodin 展览自 4 月15日到 7 月20日。
The newsletter opens with former hedge fund manager Crispin Odey suing the UK FCA over a fine and ban case. The core feature is pension planning through generative AI. Dan, a 41-year-old engineer in Florida, used ChatGPT for his $200,000 IRA and ended up reworking his whole portfolio. A Lloyds Banking Group survey of 5,000 Britons found that more than half of adults use AI for financial advice, with one in three doing so weekly. ChatGPT was most popular, followed by Gemini, Copilot, and Meta AI on WhatsApp and Facebook. The rise of AI advice also disrupted markets: after a U.S. fintech launched an AI financial-adviser tool, shares of wealth managers and brokers fell sharply. Experts still stress users should verify AI outputs and understand model limits.
Berkshire Hathaway restarted share buybacks after 22 months under new CEO Greg Abel, using nearly $400bn in cash. Abel personally bought $15.3m of Berkshire shares, nearly his expected $25m post-tax annual income, and said he will repeat the process each year after filing the 10‑K and waiting 48 hours. Repurchases began on Wednesday, his first as CEO, and were taken as a signal that shares are below intrinsic value. As a $1.1tn group, Berkshire normally discloses buybacks only in quarterly filings; the previous disclosure was in May 2024. The SEC filing says the move is about transparency during leadership transition, and Abel said the cash cushion does not imply retreat.
After the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran, hedge funds have been reassessing emerging-market positions. EM stocks had risen 14% this year before the shock, then came pressure from a stronger dollar, safe-haven flows, Brent rising more than 17% in late February, and higher gas prices in Asia and Europe. A macro-hedge fund executive said EM had become a leveraged one-way trade; Goldman Sachs said EM exposure was near five-year highs before the war. For oil-import-heavy Turkey, sustained high energy prices would push inflation, though reserves may support the lira. Other figures were: Blackstone private credit saw $1.7bn net outflows in Q1, Elliott had about £200mn exposure to a collapsed UK mortgage firm, and the Louvre’s Michelangelo-Rodin exhibition runs from Apr 15 to Jul 20.