Berkshire's UnitedHealth stake, Trump meets with Putin and more in Morning Squawk
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought more than 5 million shares of UnitedHealth last quarter, the conglomerate revealed Thursday. Shares of the troubled health-care stock — which before Buffett's filing were down nearly 50% so far this year — popped on the news and were up more than 10% before the bell Friday. Indeed, Berkshire's disclosure surprised many market watchers: UnitedHealth has become the face of public dissatisfaction with the country's health care system, is currently facing an investigation into its Medicare billing practices and issued disappointing guidance last month. But that's not the only move Berkshire made. The conglomerate also took stakes in Nucor, Lamar Advertising, Allegion, Lennar and DR Horton.
President Donald Trump is on his way to Alaska for a highly anticipated, one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday. The summit between the two leaders, taking place at Elmendorf Richardson military base in Anchorage, comes as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year. "The president wants to exhaust all options to try to bring this war to a peaceful resolution," the White House said Thursday. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited to the meeting, which will be followed by a working lunch and a joint press conference with the two leaders.
Shares of Intel closed more than 7% higher on Thursday following a report that the Trump administration is considering having the U.S. government take a stake in the company. The report by Bloomberg comes days after Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan's trip to the White House, where he met with Trump after the president called for his resignation. Trump appeared to walk back his criticisms of Tan following the Monday meeting, writing in a Truth Social post that Tan's "success and rise is an amazing story." If the U.S. government were to take a stake in Intel, the report said, it would help fund the factories that the struggling chipmaker is building in Ohio.
August isn't what it used to be, according to airlines. The third quarter has historically been somewhat of a sure thing for carriers, but airlines have drawn down their schedules for August as a variety of factors weigh on summer travel demand. Some travelers are flying earlier in the summer, demand for Europe-bound flights has moved to later in the fall and schools' summer breaks are happening earlier in the calendar year. Other travelers are just waiting until the last minute to book. "It really was, I would say, middle of May, when we started seeing Memorial Day bookings pick up," JetBlue Airways President Marty St. George said last month. "We had a fantastic Memorial Day, much better than forecast, and that really carried into June. But it does have the feeling of people just waited a long time to make the final decisions."
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