Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway’s decision to sell nearly half of its Apple stocks.
According to Benzinga’s report, Berkshire released its Q2 financial report last Saturday, showing a 15.5% year-on-year increase in operating income to $11.6 billion and a 15.5% year-on-year decrease in net profit to $30.35 billion. During this period, the company continued to reduce its holdings in Apple, selling approximately 390 million shares. As of June 30th, Berkshire still holds approximately 400 million shares of Apple stock worth $84.2 billion.
A user on social platform X shared the news that Berkshire now holds nearly $277 billion in cash reserves (cash, cash equivalents, and short-term bonds) after selling the stocks. He jokingly suggested that Buffett could use these cash reserves for bold full-scale acquisitions of companies like Netflix, Salesforce, Toyota, Adobe, or Hermes.
In response, Musk said that he also criticized the Federal Reserve for not lowering interest rates, believing that the current rates are too high. He said, “The Fed needs to lower interest rates, and it’s foolish that they haven’t done so.”
Global financial markets experienced significant volatility on Monday, according to the report by the Nikkei. The Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX) briefly fell by 8%, triggering a circuit breaker pause in TOPIX futures trading on the Osaka Exchange. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) recorded a daily decline of over 8%, triggering a circuit breaker during trading. The Taiwan Weighted Index fell by 1,807.21 points, marking the largest drop and percentage decline in history.
The cryptocurrency market also saw a significant decline in the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin (BTC) falling by over 15% and briefly dropping below the $50,000 mark. Ethereum (ETH) experienced a sharp drop of over 22%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at around $51,000, and Ethereum was priced at approximately $2,250.