• The stock market crash triggered by President Donald Trump’s global tariffs brought Warren Buffett’s investment moves over the past year into a fresh light, underscoring his prudence amid the once-raging bull market. His decision last year to shed most of Berkshire Hathaway’s Apple stock now looks especially well timed.

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett’s investment moves over the past year now seem uncannily well timed in the wake of the stock market meltdown caused by President Donald Trump’s global tariffs.

In the last two trading sessions alone, the S&P 500 crashed 10%, and the broad market index is down 17% from its mid-February peak. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the small-cap Russell 2000 are in bear market territory, having tumbled more than 20% from their recent highs.

Since Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement on Wednesday, US stocks have lost more than $6 trillion in market cap in the worst selloff since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as Wall Street prices in a tariff-induced US recession.

But Buffett appeared to anticipate a market downturn coming. Berkshire sold $134 billion in equities in 2024—when the bull market was still raging—and was sitting on a record $334 billion cash pile at year’s end. That’s nearly double from a year earlier and more than its shrinking stock portfolio of $272 billion.

The famously value-oriented investor has also been complaining for years that valuations were too high and has held off on using his cash on major acquisitions due to a lack of bargains.

Most of Berkshire’s cash is in short-term Treasury bills, which not only offer shelter from the storm but also provide the conglomerate a tidy gain that Buffett noted in his most recent letter to shareholders.

“We were aided by a predictable large gain in investment income as Treasury Bill yields improved and we substantially increased our holdings of these highly-liquid short-term securities,” he wrote in February.

In addition to what he bought, what he sold also stands out, given the market crash.

Last year, Berkshire slashed its Apple stake by about two-thirds, representing the bulk of the company’s equity sales, though the iPhone maker remains its largest stock holding.

Those stock sales, which came in the first three quarters of the year, also occurred while Apple was still on the rise, with shares peaking in late December.

But since that peak, Apple has collapsed 28% as US tariffs on China are expected to hit especially hard. That’s because Apple, like many tech companies, relies on China for parts and manufacturing.

With Trump’s latest round of tariffs, imports from China now face a 54% duty. And if the administration follows through on its threat to impost a “secondary tariff” on countries that buy oil from Venezuela, the rate could hit 79%.

Meanwhile, Berkshire has also been offloading shares of Bank of America and Citigroup. Shares of both banking giants are down about 22% so far this year.

By contrast, Berkshire’s class B shares are up 9% this year, though they have taken a modest hit this past week. The wide array of its businesses, such as insurance, rail, and energy, are mostly focused on the US and less exposed to imports.

As a result, Buffett’s personal fortune has grown this year, unlike those of his peers. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth has expanded by $12.7 billion this year to give him a total of $155 billion, putting him at No. 6 on the list and essentially tying him with Bill Gates, whose own fortune shrank by $3.38 billion.

Elon Musk remains No. 1 with $302 billion, though that’s down by $130 billion in 2025, followed by Jeff Bezos with $193 billion, down by $45.2 billion.

As Buffett watchers wait to see if the recent market crash will finally induce him to make a big acquisition or stock purchase, his February letter may offer a clue.

“Berkshire shareholders can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities—mostly American equities although many of these will have international operations of significance,” he wrote. “Berkshire will never prefer ownership of cash-equivalent assets over the ownership of good businesses, whether controlled or only partially owned.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Klarna and StubHub will hold back on their IPOs after the stock market collapsed over Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Both companies were scheduled to pitch to investors next week, but have put their roadshows on hold.

Klarna and StubHub have reportedly delayed IPO plans after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs caused a roughly $6 trillion loss on the stock market last week. 

Due to the recent market meltdown, the two companies will hold off on going public for the near future and have no timeline to reinstate their plans, an unnamed source told CNBC.

StubHub had planned a roadshow next week, but that’s now on ice, according to The Wall Street Journal. Similarly, Klarna postponed plans to pitch to investors next week, WSJ said. Both companies declined Fortune’s request for comment.

StubHub worried investors would not have time to meet with the company amid the market troubles and feared that going public during the turbulence might look desperate, sources told the WSJ. 

This is the second time StubHub has postponed its offering. Last summer, the ticketing marketplace decided to delay its IPO due to the slow new-listings market. 

StubHub planned to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker STUB. In 2024, the company sought a valuation of at least $16.5 billion.

StubHub reported a $2.8 million loss on revenue of $1.77 billion in 2024. One year prior, the company earned $405 million on $1.37 billion in revenue, according to its S-1 filing. The loss came from a sales and advertising push, which boosted expenses by $310 million to $828 million.

Klarna specializes in buy now, pay later loans and most recently partnered with DoorDash to enable users to pay for meal deliveries in installments. 

The company planned to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KLAR, targeting a valuation of $15 billion. Klarna was previously valued in 2022 at $6.7 billion. 

Shares of Klarna’s competitor Affirm have cratered 46% this year, falling 8% Friday alone. Affirm’s market cap has fallen to $11.4 billion, lower than Klarna’s valuation target.

Klarna previously warned tariffs could pose a risk for growth. In its IPO filing last month, the company said “a downturn in the general environment or a slower pace of economic growth” caused by changes in international trade policies, new tariffs, and immigration policies “can lead to consumer spending and adversely affect the financial condition of our merchants.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Senate Republicans plugged away overnight and into early Saturday morning to approve their multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts framework, hurtling past Democratic opposition toward what President Donald Trump calls the “big, beautiful bill” that’s central to his agenda.

The vote, 51-48, fell along mostly party lines, but with sharp dissent from two prominent Republicans. It could not have come at a more difficult political moment, with the economy churning after Trump’s new tariffs sent stocks plummeting and experts warning of soaring costs for consumers and threats of a potential recession. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky both voted against the measure.

But with a nod from Trump, GOP leaders held on. Approval paves the way for Republicans in the months ahead to try to power a tax cut bill through both chambers of Congress over the objections of Democrats, just as they did in Trump’s first term with unified party control in Washington.

“Let the voting begin,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Friday night.

Democrats were intent on making the effort as politically painful as possible, with action on some two dozen amendments to the package that GOP senators will have to defend before next year’s midterm elections.

Among them were proposals to ban tax breaks for the super-wealthy, end Trump’s tariffs, clip his efforts to shrink the federal government, and protect Medicaid, Social Security and other services. One, in response to the Trump national security team’s use of Signal, sought to prohibit military officials from using any commercial messaging application to transmit war plans. They all failed, though a GOP amendment to protect Medicare and Medicaid was accepted.

Democrats accused Republicans of laying the groundwork for cutting key safety net programs to help pay for more than $5 trillion tax cuts they say disproportionately benefit the rich.

“Trump’s policies are a disaster,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, as is Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, he added. “Republicans could snuff it out tonight, if they wanted.”

The Republicans framed their work as preventing a tax increase for most American families, arguing that unless Congress acts, the individual and estate tax cuts that GOP lawmakers passed in 2017 will expire at the end of this year.

The Senate package pulls in other GOP priorities, including $175 billion to bolster Trump’s mass deportation effort, which is running short of cash, and an additional $175 billion for the Pentagon to build up the military, from an earlier budget effort.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 ranking Republican, said voters gave his party a mission in November, and the Senate’s budget plan delivers.

“It fulfills our promises to secure the border, to rebuild our economy and to restore peace through strength,” Barrasso said.

The framework now goes to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., could bring it up for a vote as soon as next week as he works toward a final product by Memorial Day.

The House and Senate need to resolve their differences. The House’s version has $4.5 trillion in tax breaks over 10 years and some $2 trillion in budget cuts, and pointed at changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other programs. Some House Republicans have panned the Senate’s approach.

Republican senators used their majority to swat back Democratic amendments, often in rambunctious voice votes.

Among the more than two dozen amendments offered were several to protect safety net programs. Several Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, joined Democrats in voting to preserve some of those programs, particularly regarding health care. Collins opposed the entire package in a warning against steep Medicaid cuts.

Collins said the potential reductions for that health program in the House bill “would be very detrimental to a lot of families and disabled individuals and seniors in my state.”

Paul questioned the math being used by his colleagues that he said would pile on the debt load. “Something’s fishy,” he said.

One Republican, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, expressed his own misgivings about tax breaks adding to the federal deficits and said he has assurances that Trump officials would seek the cuts elsewhere.

“This vote isn’t taking place in a vacuum,” he said, a nod to the turmoil over Trump’s tariffs.

One crucial challenge ahead will be for the House to accept the way the Senate’s budget plan allows for extending the tax cuts under a scoring method that treats them as not adding to future deficits, something many House Republicans reject. A new estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation projects the tax breaks will add $5.5 trillion over the next decade when including interest, and $4.6 trillion not including interest.

On top of that, the senators added an additional $1.5 trillion that would allow some of Trump’s campaign promises, such as no taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime, swelling the overall the price tag to $7 trillion.

Republicans are also looking to increase the $10,000 deduction for state and local taxes, something that lawmakers from states such as New York, California and New Jersey say is necessary for their support.

The House and Senate are also at odds over increasing the debt limit to allow more borrowing. The House had boosted the debt limit by $4 trillion in its plan, but the Senate upped it to $5 trillion to push any further votes on the matter until after next year’s midterm elections.

The Senate calls for just $4 billion in spending cuts, but GOP leadership emphasizes that’s a low floor and that committees will be on the hunt for far more.

Already, the GOP leaders are confronting concerns from fiscal hawks who want trillions of dollars in spending cuts to help pay for the tax breaks. At the same time, dozens of lawmakers in swing districts and states are worried about what those cuts will mean for their constituents, and for their reelection chances.

The GOP leadership has encouraged members to just get a budget plan over the finish line, saying they have time to work out the tough questions of which tax breaks and spending cuts to include.

Extending the the 2017 breaks would cut taxes for about three-quarters of households but raise them for about 10%. In 2027, about 45% of the benefit of all the tax cuts would go to those making roughly $450,000 or more, accordingto the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, which analyzes tax issues.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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