Good evening and welcome to Markets Desk, your end-of-day read on what moved the needle.
Berkshire Hathaway's legendary cash pile took its first meaningful step down in years, falling from three hundred ninety-seven billion dollars to three hundred sixty-six billion in a single quarter. That's a thirty-one billion dollar deployment, signaling Buffett may finally be putting that war chest to work after years of patience.
Turning to geopolitics and energy markets, Iran is preparing to announce an exclusion zone stretching from outside the Strait of Hormuz deep into the Persian Gulf, targeting vessels it believes are attempting to transit the waterway. The U.S. military has flatly denied Iranian claims of striking an American unmanned vessel, calling it a total lie. With roughly twenty percent of global oil supply flowing through that strait, any escalation carries direct consequences for crude pricing and shipping risk premiums.
And in Asian equities, traders are watching three markets that could face renewed selling pressure Monday. Japan's Nikkei two twenty-five snapped a four-day losing streak but sits just above the sixty-five thousand level. Taiwan and Malaysia both show fragile footing heading into the new week, with momentum still skewed to the downside across the region.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
