Hey there weekday warriors,

Today we’re recapping Berkshire’s annual meeting, diving into the jobs report, and a whole lot more. Enjoy the next 4 minutes and 13 seconds of blue-chip news and commentary.

Keep on snapping necks and cashing checks,

- tyler

+ US stocks “surged on Friday as upbeat earnings from Apple (AAPL) lifted spirits and a weaker-than-expected jobs report revived bets that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates sooner than thought.” (Yahoo! Finance)

+ The 10-year Treasury yield “dropped on Friday after April’s jobs report showed weaker-than-expected payrolls growth and an unexpected tick higher in the unemployment rate." (CNBC)

+ Oil “settled lower on Friday, and posted their steepest weekly loss in three months, as investors weighed weak U.S. jobs data and possible timing of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.” (Reuters)

+ Bitcoin moved higher along with stocks on Friday.

+ The three most talked about stocks on WallStreetBets in the past 24 hours were: 1) Apple +5.9% 2) C3.ai +3.8% 3) Palantir +3.8%

The market moves you need to know about…

+ Ok, don’t freak out, but GameStop rose 51% in the past two trading days. On Friday, shares closed up 29.0%… on no actual news.

+ MercadoLibre, copied and pasted Amazon in Latin America, jumped 8.2% after reporting earnings. It beat easily on the top and bottom lines, and shared that it had seen record levels of retention and strong traction for its MELI+ program (think: Amazon Prime).

+ Real estate franchisee RE/MAX mooned 7.6% on news that it beats the Street’s estimates. It also got a little help from the Fed earlier in the week. J-Poww promised that he had no plans to raise rates.

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Buffettpalooza

Buffettpalooza sounded pretty damn bleak…

Berkshire’s annual meeting, which attracts the kind of people who lie about their age so they can join AARP before they’re 50, was full of tributes to the late Charlie Munger… and Warren Buffett joking about his own mortality. Think: “I not only hope you come next year. I hope I come next year.”

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. As expected, we got some nuggets of wisdom during the Oracles’ marathon speech/Q&A on Saturday…

Cutting his Apple stake

Good news Apple fanboys… Warren is still bullish af on Apple. So why would the company reduce its stake by 13%? Tax planning, of course. Would you expect anything else from WB?

So. Much. Cash

Warren believes Berkshire could be sitting on $200B in dry powder by the end of this quarter. But it’s not his fault. There’s just nothing to spend it on. Buffett has complained previously, and did so again this weekend, about the lack of opportunities.

I’ve got some bad news if you think you’re going to get that money back as a dividend. The 94-year-old said he’d rather drink a Pepsi than pay a dividend. He believes the capital could be put to better use in an investment. Plus, he doesn't love that once you start paying a dividend investors really, really dislike when you stop.

Shocker…

The dude who called Bitcoin “rat poison” likened AI to nuclear weapons. He spent most of his time on the topic, talking about AI scams being the next big growth industry.

The elephant in the room…

Unless Warren uploads his consciousness into AI, it’s safe to assume he’ll step back from day-to-day portfolio management in the not-so-distant future. We already know that Greg Abel is taking over as CEO.

But Saturday was the first time Warren mentioned that Greg the Egg is next in line to manage the Berkshire stock portfolio.

And in case you were wondering…

Berkshire Hathaway also announced its Q1 earnings…

Operating profit at the conglomerate jumped 39% vs. the same period last year, while net income fell 64%. Friendly reminder, net income includes gains/losses from the company’s stock portfolio. Although it has to be reported because of those dorks in accounting, Warren often tells investors to overlook that number.

+ So you’re telling me there’s a chance (or rate cuts)?

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics dropped the April jobs report. And it came in *double checks notes* way below expectations. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 175k vs. 240k expected.

The unemployment rate jumped to 3.9%. Economists were expecting 3.8%. Oh, and did I mention that average hourly earnings rose by 0.2% month over month and 3.9% vs. the same period last year? Both of those figures were below estimates, too.

Is this bad news for anyone seeking work to pay for their kids’ medicine? You bet. But this is great news for all of us hoping for rate cuts and a bull market.

After the data dropped, market action indicated that investors are expecting two rate cuts in 2024. There is a god.

+ Shares of Apple (+5.9%) had their best day since 2022 (you know, when the Apple Car was still a thing… people don’t forget, Tim) after reporting better-than-expected earnings and announcing a $110B stock repurchase program on Thursday.

Investors didn’t give a damn that overall sales fell 4%, iPhone sales dropped 10%… and that the company sold like 10 Vision Pros.

Apple stans are looking forward to an iPad event this week and a bigger event in June where Tim Apple is expected to unveil his AI plans.

+ Ok, hear me out… we get Palantir (+3.4%) CEO Alex Karp and Hims & Hers (-8.0%) CEO Andrew Dudum in a room together…

You see, both have very different points of view on the situation unfolding on college campuses. Karp said he’d like the Columbia student protestors to spend a “couple months in North Korea.”

Meanwhile, Dudum said he was eager to hire the same students. Markets showed their displeasure with his choice of talent. HIMS fell 8% on the day…

+ And now we wait…

On Friday, Paramount (-7.0%) ended exclusive talks with Skydance for a buyout of the studio. That doesn’t mean Skydance won’t get the deal done. But it sure makes it a lot easier for Sony and Apollo to swoop in.

You might recall that late last week Sony and Apollo came in with a $26B offer for Paramount Global.

Shares of Paramount dropped on fears that it might not get any deal done…

+ The 6 Best Credit Cards for Balance Transfers (Read)

+ The No. 1 credit card myth that ‘just will not seem to die’—why you shouldn’t fall for it (Read)

+ These 10 colleges may be as good as the Ivy League, according to Forbes (Read)

BTW, some of these links include affiliate offers.

On Friday, we were keeping an eye on the April jobs report. You can check out all the details above.

Here's what we’re keeping an eye on today...

+ Tyson Foods report this AM

+ Palantir, Coca-Cola, and Lucid report after the close

+ The Milken Institute Global Conference gets underway. Speakers include Bill Ackman and Elon (another snub for TWC this year).

Here’s today’s question…

What’s your favorite thing (could be a section, schtick, data point etc.) about any non-TWC newsletter you read?

You can reply directly to this email or shoot me a note at [email protected].

Oh, and…

Does this look like the face of a guy you should take financial advice from?

No, it’s the face of an individual who is financially irresponsible/dumb enough to be talked into spending money on a family photo shoot that he could have just done with his iPhone. So, act accordingly...

This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter is an investment recommendation. All content is created for entertainment, educational, or informational purposes only. Do your own research, or do yourself a favor and hire a professional