Buyers during Berkshire price glitch can’t keep their big bargains

Buyers during Berkshire price glitch can’t keep their big bargains

The New York Stock Exchange says it canceled all “erroneous” trades of Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A stock on Monday morning.

That’s a disappointment for anyone who managed to do some buying before trading was halted due to a technical glitch that briefly cut the stock’s price to $185.10, a drop of 99.97% from the previous Friday’s close of $627,400.

In an update sent to traders Monday afternoon, the NYSE said it “has ruled to bust all erroneous trades … from 09:50- 9:51 at or below $603,718.30” related to the price issue.

The decision is “not eligible for appeal.”

We don’t know how many Berkshire A trades were canceled or the number of shares involved.

A display at the NYSE shows shares of Berkshire Hathaway down 99.97% due to a technical glitch on Jun 3, 2024. Photo: Gillian Austin | CNBC

The Consolidated Tape Association, the consortium responsible for distributing real-time stock quotes for the NYSE and other big exchanges, said a faulty software update generated price errors for 40 stocks, including Berkshire’s A shares, from 9:30 am until 10:27 am when it switched to a backup data center that was still running the old software.

Berkshire’s B shares were not affected.

Trading in the stocks that were halted resumed by 11:40 am after the problem was fixed.

OXY teams with Berkshire on ‘green’ lithium extraction

Oil giant Occidental Petroleum will work with Berkshire Hathaway Energy on extracting lithium from geothermal brine.

The mineral is needed to make batteries for electric vehicles and power storage that are essential to transitioning to sustainable energy production.

Getting it from geothermal brines, a byproduct of geothermal energy production, promises to be less costly and have a smaller environmental footprint than mining it.

This week, OXY announced a joint venture with BHE Renewables to “demonstrate the feasibility” of using a method developed by its TerraLithium subsidiary to “produce lithium in an environmentally safe manner.”

The lithium will be extracted from the brine processed by BHE’s 10 geothermal power plants in California’s Imperial Valley.

If the demonstration is successful, BHE Renewables plans to “build, own and operate commercial lithium production facilities” in the area.

After a string of purchases over the past two years, Berkshire Hathaway is Occidental’s biggest shareholder with a 28% stake valued at $14.8 billion.

It hasn’t added to the holdings since early February, but that could be about to change.

After nearly touching $70 in April, OXY’s share price closed today at $59.48 amid a decline for energy stocks.

As Barron’s reminds us, nearly all of Berkshire purchases have been made at $60 or below.

NetJets pilots: Berkshire defamation suit is ‘attempt to silence us’

The union representing 3,400 pilots at Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets says the company’s defamation suit filed this week is “an attempt to silence us.”

Reuters quotes the president of the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots as saying it “stands by the concerns we have raised about pilot training and the safety and maintenance cultures