https://www.wsj.com/articles/warren-buffett-says-markets-have-become-a-gambling-parlor-11651340230?mod=hp_lead_pos2
“It’s a gambling parlor,” Mr. Buffett said Saturday of the markets over the past few years. He added that he blamed the financial industry for motivating risky behavior among investors. While he finds speculative bets “obscene,” the pickup in volatility across the markets has had one good effect, he said: It has allowed Berkshire to find undervalued businesses to invest in again following a period of relative quiet.
Up until recently, Berkshire had largely been sitting on its cash pile. Its business thrived; a recovering economy and roaring stock market helped push net earnings to a record in 2021. But it didn’t announce any major deals, something that led many analysts and investors to wonder about its next moves. Berkshire ended the year with a near record amount of cash on hand. (After Berkshire’s buying spree, the size of the company’s war chest shrank to $106.26 billion at the end of the first quarter, from $146.72 billion three months earlier.)
Mr. Buffett’s feeling that there were no appealing investment opportunities for Berkshire quickly gave way to excitement in late February, he said Saturday, when he got a copy of Alleghany Chief Executive Joseph Brandon’s annual report.
Berkshire’s decision to build up a 14% stake in Occidental also came about with a report. Mr. Buffett said he had read an analyst note on the company, whose stock is still trading below its 2011 high, and decided the casino-like market conditions made it a good time to buy the stock.
“I don’t think we ever had anything quite like we have now in terms of the volumes of pure gambling activity going on daily,” Mr. Munger said. “It’s not pretty.”
But the amount of speculation in the markets has given Berkshire a chance to spot undervalued businesses, Mr. Munger said, allowing the company to put its $106 billion cash reserve to work.
Neither Mr. Buffett nor Mr. Munger specifically addressed Berkshire’s decision to increase its Chevron stake.
But the two men offered a defense of the oil industry. It is a good thing for the U.S. to be producing more of its own oil, Mr. Buffett said. Mr. Munger went further, saying he could hardly think of a more useful industry.
Personally I’m not sure what made OXY or CVX so much more appealing this year than last year or the year before, when they were selling for much less.
