Buffett's Investing Lessons, COVID Plot Thickens, Ethereum Analyst Predicts March Rally And More: 5 Key Stories You May Have Missed From The Weekend

Here's a recap of a few major headlines that hit the wire over the weekend as investors take stock of the stalling of the market rally and plot their next moves. 

1. Berkshire’s Earnings, Buffett’s Letter: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.'s BRKA BRKB fourth-quarter results released on Saturday showed a decline in earnings, dragged by investment losses. The development doesn’t come as a surprise given the lackluster market conditions. Buffett’s letter to the company’s shareholders was also released along with the report and it delved into the company’s early days, evolution, investment ideology and future direction.

2. COVID Likely Triggered By Lab Leak, Energy Department Says: The U.S. Energy Department has determined the original COVID-19 pandemic resulted from a laboratory leak in China, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a classified intelligence report submitted by the federal agency to the White House and key Congressional members. The new report assumes importance because it is based on new intelligence. Additionally, the Energy Department is known of its scientific expertise because it oversees a network of U.S. national labs, including those conducting advanced biological research.

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3. Summers Says Russia Has To Foot Bill For Ukraine Reconstruction: In an interview with CNN, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said the funds needed to build back Ukraine should come from the seizure of Russian state assets. He also reminded that Russia had seized German assets following World War II for its own reconstruction.

4. Ethereum Set To Take Off, Says Analyst: Ethereum ETH/USD is priming for assuming leadership in the crypto market rally, an analyst said. Chris Burniske, former blockchain products lead at Ark Invest, said a slight pullback in cryptos is likely but he shrugged off talks of new lows. After Bitcoin’s BTC/USD strong performance in January and the consolidation in February, the analyst said he expects Ethereum to lead the rest with the Shanghai upgrade driving ETH staking flows.

5. Meta Takes On ChatGPT With LLaMA: Following the AI revolution that is taking shape with the popularity of ChatGPT, Meta Platforms, Inc. META apparently doesn't want to be left behind. It announced the "Large Language Model Meta AI," or LLaMA, which would help researchers advance their work in this subfield of AI with the help of a state-of-the-art foundational large language model.

What Else: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said the secret group at Apple, Inc. AAPL, named “Exploratory Device Group,” or XDG, which is working on prick-free glucose monitoring technology, is dabbling with several other breakthrough technologies as well.

Even as several high-profile corporations exited Russia in the wake of the war with Ukraine, for brewer Heineken N.V. HEINY and Philip Morris International PM, it has been business as usual in the Vladimir Putin-led country.

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