Billionaire investor Warren Buffet celebrates his 94th birthday today, Friday, August 30, 2024. The milestone comes shortly after Buffet’s multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc. became the first US company outside the tech sector to surpass $1 trillion in market value. Shares rose 0.8 per cent on Wednesday, pushing the market capitalization above the trillion-dollar mark for the first time.
Berkshire Hathaway’s rally this year has outpaced the S&P 500’s gains, with the company off to one of its best annual starts in a decade. The stock has rallied more than 30 per cent in 2024 on strong insurance results and economic growth optimism, while the market benchmark is up nearly 19 per cent so far.
Berkshire Hathaway nears ‘Magnificent Seven’
The stock has added more than $200 billion in market capitalization this year alone—a record for the firm but a sharp contrast to Nvidia’s nearly $2 trillion increase. Based on the relative strength index, Berkshire’s rally has pushed it into overbought territory.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate joins the group of companies to crack the milestone, dominated by technology giants like Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., and Nvidia Corp. Berkshire is not far behind the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’, which is a gauge of the biggest tech stocks—up 35 per cent this year.
Buffett has spent most of his life turning Berkshire Hathaway from a textile maker into a sprawling business empire. He shaped the company alongside longtime business partner Charlie Munger, who died in November at age 99.
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