Berkshire slashed its Amazon position by 77%, continuing a pattern of reducing big tech exposure. This follows Berkshire's well-documented Apple trimming and reflects Buffett's broader cash-raising mode as the company transitions to Greg Abel's leadership. Buffett has never been comfortable with businesses he doesn't fully understand, and Amazon's sprawling empire of AWS, advertising, and retail may be too complex for his taste.
UnitedHealth Group ( NYSE:UNH) shares rose 7.3% over the past week as retail investor sentiment on Reddit and X shifted from deeply bearish to neutral. Trading around $355, the stock has stabilized after falling significantly from its 52-week high following the December 2024 shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Current sentiment scores sit at 42 out of 100, up from extreme negativity just months ago.
Shares of MicroStrategy ( NASDAQ:MSTR) are trading 20% below their 200-day moving average of $332.74, coinciding with a sharp deterioration in retail investor sentiment. Reddit discussions have turned decidedly bearish, with sentiment scores falling to 28 out of 100 in early December. The shift comes as Bitcoin dropped 16.6% from its mid-November peak of $104,050 to current levels around $86,774, putting pressure on MicroStrategy's $56 billion cryptocurrency holdings.
"The response since we launched early access has been fantastic and is already mirroring our remarkable first round,"
The bearish tilt in options discussions reflects real concerns that go beyond typical market gyrations: Oracle trades at a close to a 60 P/E ratio, leaving very little breathing room for any other than spectacular growth Quarterly earnings growth turned negative at -1.9% YoY, a jarring reversal among concerns about margin pressure The company faces intensifying competition in AI infrastructure from all comers. Everyone from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to OpenAI is building out their own massive infrastructure.
The book, which contains sexually explicit snapshots and hand-drawn images, concludes with a less-provocative section titled "Business." It offers a rare glimpse into the Wall Street job that helped launch Epstein's lucrative career as a money manager for businessmen like Les Wexner, the former owner of Victoria's Secret. The section includes letters from five former colleagues from Bear Stearns, the investment bank where Epstein worked for five years before hanging out his own shingle in 1981 as a financial advisor to the rich and powerful.
