a runcible spoon
market vibes
March 24…)
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.” Albert Einstein
in the news
Kevin Hassett, Trump’s National Economic Council director, said markets are overestimating the scope of tariffs on Kudlow this weekend. “I think markets need to change their expectations, because it’s not everybody that cheats us on trade, it’s just a few countries and those countries are going to be seeing some tariffs.” (FOX News)
A number of bloggers and financial reports noted an announcement on Friday that Berkshire Hathaway sold its entire holding of VOO (Vanguard SPX 500) in Q4. The tone was a bit hyperbolic on the wires. The sale was actually an odd-lot of about $24 million dollars. BRK held approximately $334 billion in cash as of Q4’s latest reg filing. (Motley Fool 3/21/25). Buffett sold $150 billion of AAPL in Q2 and Q3 last year at an average of $215. AAPL closed at $218 on Friday.
Elon Musk owns just 12.8% of TSLA in addition to five other companies including 74% of X which is nearly debt free. Starlink was cash flow neutral in 2023 and reported $7 billion revenue in 2024 (GROK).
The other 87.2% of Tesla is owned as follows:
Institutions: 64.5% (2.07 billion shares) - Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street lead (meaning us).
Retail: 15-18% (481-578 million shares) - Millions of individual investors (again…us).
Other Insiders: 1.1% (36 million shares) - execs, board.
Other Entities: 3-5% (96-160 million shares) - Sovereign funds, hedge funds, etc.
So, the car burners are pretty much burning their own money… and your retirement savings.
In the markets
Iran says they will not enter direct negotiations with Trump until the sanctions are eased. Ukraine is still actively bombing Russian oil infrastructure. Zelensky describes meetings in KSA today as constructive. Exxon is comfortable with prices at $50/barrel and plans to pump more oil “no matter where prices go.” (Oilprice.com)
NYMEX May WTI is higher in a 4th day of higher highs and higher lows on flat to lower OI and light volume.
Bearish news good action: Vortexa reported the amount of crude oil held around the world on tankers for at least 7 days rose 7.6% to 67.43m bbl as of March 21. Iraq plans to raise oil and gas capacity to 6m b/d by 2029, as part of a five-year plan (Iraqi News Agency). Cracks are mixed. The front spread is unchanged..
Comex June gold is up on falling OI and moderate volume in Friday’s session. Volume tends to pick up on down days. The April/June roll is underway with June OI at 172k lots and April still top step this morning at 221k lots. There is no stress in gold spreads or swaps.
Next upi this morning a discussion and look-back about the copper gold ratio. Sell in May? You decide. S&Ps, bonds, Bitcoin entwined in the same naratives and the dollar channeling tumbleweeds. here we go…
