the "oracle of omaha's" firm, berkshire hathaway, will get 50,000 preferred shares and a generous annual dividend of 6%. berkshire is also getting warrants allowing it to buy 700 million bank of america common shares at $7.14 any time in the next decade. as erika miller explains, that's more than just good news for that firm; it may also be a vote of confidence in the economic recovery. >> reporter: bank of america had been in the doghouse. it's shares traded at a two-and- a half year low this week. but today, the bank was the darling of wall street, after getting the stamp of approval of warren buffet, arguably the nation's most respected investor. bank analyst jim sinegal says that endorsement comes at a steep price. >> basically, if things go poorly and b-of-a has to raise more common equity, that will actually lower the risk of his preferred stock investment. if things go really well for b-of-a and the company is earning $1.50 to $2.00 a share, trading at $15 to $20 in a few years-- actually, any time up till the next ten years-- buffett will be able to buy that stock at $7.00. >> re

. >>> stocks had opened higher on warren buffett's berkshire hathaway taking a $5 billion stake in the struggling bank of america. boa gained over 9%, accounting for almost 10% of the day's total volume. on the first day of trade since apple co-founder steve jobs' resignation, shares fell only slightly. a sharp drop thursday on germany's dax. at one point by as much as 5% increased jitters and selling on wall street. >>> new jobs numbers also fuelled selling. u.s. jobless claims rose last week to their highest point in five weeks, but that was largely inflated by formally striking workers at verizon. >>> after two days of sharp declines, gold rose more than 1%. elsewhere delta plans to spend billions buying 100 boeing 737 jets to upgrade its fleet. >>> finally, the gas-guzzling favorite of the rich and famous is also apparently the favorite of thieves. a new study finds the cadillac escalade is the most likely vehicle to be targeted by crooks. >>> coming up, preseason football heats up. the red sox live off the long ball, and the u.s. final is set in little league baseball. plus, the n

. >>> finally, sunday warren buffett's berkshire hathaway made a buy-out for transatlantic holdings. >>> a bitter caddie enjoys sweet revenge. >>> the mets' season's hopes remain on the stratraining tabl >>> the yankees and red sox series battling for first place. first look at sports is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. go! go! completing an atm deposit in record time... that's a step forward. go! go! with deposit friendly atms, you can make ultra fast, secure deposits with no slips or envelopes. take a step forward and chase what matters. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to gre

. >>> stocks had opened higher on warren buffett's berkshire hathaway taking a $5 billion stake in the struggling bank of america. the oa gained over 9%, accounting for almost 10% of the day's total volume. on the first day of trade since apple ko founder steve jobs' resignation, shares fell only slightly. a sharp drop thursday on germany's dax. a one point by as many as 5% increased jitters and selling on wall street. >>> new jobs numbers also fuelled selling. u.s. jobless claims rose last week to their highest points in five weeks, but that was largely inflated by formerly striking workers at verizon. after two days of sharp declines, gold rose more than 1%. elsewhere delta plans to spend billions buying 100 boeing 737 jets to upgrade its fleet. finally, the gas-guzzling favorite of the rich and famous is also apparently the favorite of thieves. a new study finds the cadillac escalade is the most likely vehicle to be targeted by crooks. >>> coming up preseason football heats up. the red sox live off the long ball, and the u.s. final is set in little league baseball. plus, the new yor

. >>> and finally, sunday, warren buffett's berkshire hathaway made a $3.25 billion buyout offer for reinsurer transatlantic holdings. >>> well, a bitter caddie enjoys sweet revenge. the mets postseason hopes end up on the trainer's table. and a nascar driver wins despite a serious handicap. plus it's only fitting a back and forth game concluded the yankees and red sox back and forth weekend series battling for first place. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> and we just finished another hot and humid weekend. today, even hotter in some locations. your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." >>> good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports it's almost a ritual of the summer. the red sox and yankees battling head-to-head for first place. here's nbc's bill seward with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> hi, everybody. if you're a baseball fan, it doesn't get much better than the yankees and red sox with first place on the line at fenway. pick it up in the ninth inning, sox down one, man on third, all dustin pe

here is a quick look at the largest financial company by market value, berkshire hathaway. these are the "b" shares, falling 6.5%. a new low tonight. s&p kept the company's credit rating unchanged-- double a plus, the same as uncle sam's-- but knocked down berkshire's outlook to "negative." as suzanne mentioned earlier, mortgage rates have been steady, but with worries about higher borrowing costs for home buyers. mortgage insurance stocks were down sharply. m.g.i.c. lost more than 40% of its value. radian group dove more than 28%. and m.b.i.a. was off over 12%. another blue chip getting bruised and battered in today's trading was verizon, falling 5.5%. this brings shares down to their lowest price of the year. what's going on? the selling comes a day after almost half of its traditional landline telephone, internet and cable tv service workers went on strike. about 45,000 walked out over contract talks. the unions have rejected company proposals to cut pensions and increase employee contributions for health insurance. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> tom: since frida

on very important terms for berkshire hathaway. shares of the company jumped on the news. the big meeting in jackson hole, how does the economy shape up for the rest of the year. joining me is jack ablin. jack, good to have you on the program. thank you for your time today. >> thank you, maria. >> so, the markets have been watching and waiting to see what ben bernanke would say and do at this summit in jackson hole, wyoming. what is your reaction to the speech? >> well, i think it was pretty much big swing and a miss for the market. we had a big buildup earlier in the week in stock prices. i was fearful that that was in anticipation of the chairman coming up with some new magic solution. but realizing that he doesn't have a lot of arsenal left, i didn't -- you know, i have to imagine he didn't sleep very well thursday night and, of course, friday morning, we saw that he really put the ball back into congress and the president's court. >> yeah, he said things like, look, we need to see fiscal policy, that encourages companies to create jobs. we need changes on taxes, we nee

they are getting a nice pop thanks to berkshire hathaway. up 13%.ll, the dow down 114 points. struggling to shake off a rise in the weekly jobless claims. kyra. >> also with reports to the housing market. the white house may take steps to help struggling homeowners? >> the obama administration is considering proposals to help homeowners and try to stimulate the economy. one proposal would allow millions with government-backed loans to refinance them at current loan mortgage rates which are around 4%. there are estimates it could save $85 billion a year. the new york times said the administration is renting out the foreclosed properties to keep the homes from flooding the market even more. as you can imagine, the president is trying to do everything possible to get americans out buying homes again and keep them in their homes. there are critics that are fearful that the mass refinancings could make borrowing more expensive. they are claiming they don't address the real problem. the homes are worth less than the mortgages. >> alison kosik, thank you s

>> rose: look at what the lessons of berkshire hathaway is. the railroad's grown, everything's growing. >> pretty much,. >> rose: you are finding that you need to hire new people. >> sure. we're investing a record $7 billionthis year in capital invement, almost all of which is in the united states. that's at least a billion more than we've ever vested in the past. there's plenty of things to do here. >> rose: you have often said that in a time like this in which there are difficult times, that's the best time for you because you can have more opportunities to buy things that you think are of quality at better prices. >> no question about that. it's like buying on sale. last monday we spent more money in the stock market buying than any day this year. but it was... >> rose: buying stock. >> right. not business. but buying business is very infrequent. there's a lot of happenstance in that but you have to be ready to do it. >> rose: there's much discussion about buying another acquisition of transatlantic, i think it is. >> we made an offer about

. >>> shares of bank of america are soaring after berkshire hathaway invested $5 billion. he said he considers b of a a strong company with good leadership. bank of america stock jumped 24% at the opening bell. right now it is up 18%. >>> at this hour, the threat of hurricane irene is forcing the u.s. navy to move ships in virginia further out to sea. irene is over the northwestern section of the bahamas. it has already destroyed 90% of the homes and two settlements. it as a new report that indicates eye reason has caused -- irene has caused $3 billion. irene will get to a category four with winds reaching 130 miles an hour. >>> voluntary evacuations are on the out are banks ahead of hurricane irene. we'll have more on how the entire east coast is bracing for hurricane irene. >>> police in fairfield want your help this morning in identifying a graffiti vandal. take a look at this surveillance photo. it shows the young man commercializing a building in the cordelia area. a previous image appears to sheet same young man. it's believed he's a juvenile. other images show him r

we've heard papa talk about it before but why don't people actually start to listen to head of berkshire hathaway also know the tax disparity in our country here at the mega rich pay income taxes at a rate of fifteen percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll it's not that it's a different story for the middle class typically they fall into the fifteen percent twenty five percent income tax brackets and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot so no matter how you break down to figures and crunch the numbers it's clear we're going to the growing wealth disparity that is bad and getting worse and i'll tell you what something needs to be done otherwise examples like the one that we just showed you in chattanooga tennessee those are become the norm in this country a race to the bottom all for average americans or for average americans while wall street continues to race to the top. i am last month army suicides hit a record since the army began releasing those figures in two thousand and nine thirty two potential suicides were recorded twenty two were active duty s

gregg: warren buffet, the legendary head of berkshire hathaway will invest $5 billion in the struggling bank of america and the shares of b of a are spiking on that. of course, they've lost a lot of their value as they struggled for the acquisition of essentially a black hole, countrywide mortgage company. so we'll have more on that in a moment. >>> in the meantime, the courts, about to rule on what could be the toughest immigration law in the united states. we'll have a fair and balanced debate straight ahead as we wait for a federal judge to decide its fate. martha: we've got a lot of breaking news that is brewing. some things that we're seeing crossing that we're working on that we want to bring to you when we can get those reports verified, but potential big news coming out of tripoli, so stay tuned for that. this is a look at the celebrations that have been there all across the week as the big question remains, where is qaddafi. and we're going to have more to report, coming up right after this. >> the message expressed, guns, cars, anything at hand, it's clear, we've won the war.

united states government that has a credit rating gets downgraded its insurance companies kraft berkshire hathaway even put on negative watch there's going to be a trickle down effect there's even talk of the states being downgraded obviously spain and italy are struggling right now. italy's actually going for a balanced budget amendment so they may get by but it may get to the point where spain just has to get downgraded and they can't continue to fight on there's a it's actually really unknown i think what's going to be the telling sign is over the next three days we have a larger treasury say a treasury note and treasury bond sales for ten and twenty and thirty years sales over the next couple days and how well those do not what the prices are how much demand there are for those i think is going to tell us a lot about what the investors think about standard and poor's rating and if investors are not running really if today is an anomaly and they are running into those and they're running away from us but it's investors signaling to a new standard course that's right the political system is brok

number of people filing for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in months, and news berkshire hathaway invest $5 billion in bank of america. live to new york stock exchange in 15 minutes. >> this morning, traders may be focused on one specific stock, apple, for the first time in 21st century, the ceo isn't someone named jobs. many wonder what it means for the iconic company. terry mcsweeney joins us live from berkeley store. >> reporter: a lot of people are saying how stunned they are that he is stepping down. some are saying they kind of expected it. not leaving apple he will be the chairman of the board but no longer ceo, not running the day to day operations. he hasn't been running the day to day operations for years now. let's take a look at some pictures of steve jobs the man who has been described as a modern day thomas edison, man who runs the number one tech business in the world. he brought us the ipods, ipads and iphones. sit a health issue driving him away? there is month mention that he submitted yesterday. he is a cancer survivor. had a liver transplant but he only says he

debt including 32 banks, berkshire hathaway got a haircut yesterday. >> thank you very much, mr.et. what does this mean for your money? "wall street journal" senior economic writer steven moore joins us now. any doubt that fannie and freddie were going to get downgraded? we've been funneling hundreds of billions of dollars to these two, i don't know, quasi government agencies for years? >> well, good morning, steve, and eric. my answer to your question is what took them so long when it comes to fannie and freddie? the big losses that fannie and freddie took back in 2008 and 2009 when the market really collapsed. what's scary about this story is how it impacts the average american, i was looking at the statistics. 90% of the mortgages over the last year that have been initiated are either guaranteed by fannie and freddie or fha on the government presence in housing is enormous right now. >> yeah, when you're talking about things being guaranteed, you are talking about our money is backing up. great. >> exactly. trillions of dollars of mortgages that are being guaranteed by taxpaye

buffet's company berkshire hathaway has 40 billion dollars in short treasury bills he has no plans toell. he doesn't expect the downgrade to have much effect on the markets monday. >> how will this downgrade affect the already volatile market when it reopens monday. lauren, good to see you, what do you expect? >> all i have to say is pack your dramamine if you are an investor monday. it is going to be another wild ride. the past two weeks have been volatile. we've been up and down and in between. here's the thing, standard & poor's did this downgrade friday evening. it was smart of them. now investors have two days to mull it over to think about what they are going to do before they overreact. so it might not be that bad monday but you can expect volatility. the dow lost 700 points last week. s&p and nasdaq down for the week. many people are saying it might already be priced into the market. we are hoping for that. but you never know. we have no economic data monday, no jobs report, no gdp, manufacturing report. this downgrade is what the traders are going to be trading on. it will be

even warren buffett's berkshire hathaway was downgraded.ot only our company losing that rating but other companies have lost it. four left, kyra. >> wow. poppy, thanks. >>> the opening bell on wall street is moments away. markets around the world sold off overnight after the dow plunged more than 600 points. how will wall street open today? we are all watching. we will take you there live. yeah. 24 bucks later. that hurts. it's not like i really had a choice. snack on this. progressive's "name your price" tool showed me a range of coverages and i picked the one that worked for me. i saved hundreds. wow, that's dinner and a movie. [ dramatic soundtrack plays ] this picture stars you and savings. but mostly savings. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive. >>> do you make big changes or do you sit tight? ryan mack is with us. seems like the same discussion every single day. we have to have it because there are still a lot of people out there wondering what the heck to do. and you are actually taking an interesting approach here.

on paper, buffet's investment looks to be shrewd for his company berkshire hathaway.ull disclosure, i have stock in that company. is he stallworth for the democratic party and supports the income redistribution companies that president obama and the left champion. however. sea brilliant businessman. that's what makes it so confusing. president bush's economic policies have failed. spending spree racked up debt and employment is worse. level more taxation on the affluent and business owners while his enthusiasm for spending cuts is muted to say the least. warn buffet has to know that. raising taxes on spending in tough economic times is very risky. buffet has to know it buffet also has to know that the zort of americans are losing faith according to a new rasmussen poll, just 14% of likely voters say the country is heading in the right direction. an astounding 79% believe the u.s.a. is on the wrong path and that number has to include many democrats. yet, even before knowing who barack obama's challenger will be, buffet is putting his hesitate teenage and money behind t

. >> and the sa and p do-- s&p an have been downgraded with fannie and freddie -- >> and berkshire hathaway. >> yes, and it is like another issue. and downgrading fannie and freddie 2 1/2 years after the mortgage crisis is odd in that there is gambling at casablanca and thank you for informing us of that. and more importantly, there is a lack of confidence in the markets because of the shock. s&p did not draw any attention to anybody who didn't know, but a psychological effect, and inappropriate one. sxwlt f >> for people with the portfolios and the immediate future and what should be the concern as we look to see what happens in washington. >> right now is totally impossible to do what you will do, and no one can call a bottom and this won't go down another 5%, but it is a time to be fearful, because everybody is fearful, but it is not the time to take radical action because of it, because historically, it rarely proves effective. >> thank you, zachary care kara >> and now back to details of the helicopter that was hit by a rocket, and killed 30 people. they say this is not a signal that t

berkshire hathaway. a lot of credibility. he came out and said i think s&p was wrong. is still aaa, if you own $40 billion in bonds you might say that. >> we kept the aaa rating but said, we're watching you. think you're sketchy. >> fitch the third one. they have not followed them. at this point it's kind of a bad -- this proved bad for s&p brands. they have politicians of all sides attacking them. they're fighting back. i think for moody's and fitch, they are happy to sit on the sidelines and see all of these air res flung at their competitive. >> now the onus is on us, the u.s., to retain that aaa rating? get it back. >> two things. obama gave the speech about the need to compromise talking about process. we need declarative statements from s&p. what does it take to get that rating back? what number are we talking about divided between taxes and cuts by what date? president obama should come out and say, talked about i'm going to talk with my advisers. form this committee. they know what you can do to bring the deficit over control in ten year. come out way plan tomo

the other thing that is really misleading is berkshire hathaway, his company doesn't pay dividends.hat is the tax on unrecognized gains in america? zero. he doesn't need the cash flow like his secretary or somebody else might. he can make millions and millions of dollars on a daily basis, get no tax because it's rating assets. >> which of the republicans at the moment -- we're seeing a clear pattern beginning to emerge, romney, bachmann, perry and so on. who do you think fundamentally has what it takes in the overall package to seriously challenge barack obama? >> i think that the primary system will winnow that out. >> what is your gut feeling? what would you say? >> you're trying to get me to pick a horse. >> i'm saying you're in the paddock, and these horses are being shown around. >> yeah. >> what is an early feeling you're getting for who could beat him. >> how about this. what i would say is i think there are a couple of attributes the american public is in search of. one is paul ryan's sort of technical expertise of the budget. a lot of time platitudes are talked about in ter

financier warren buffett's conglomerate-- berkshire hathaway-- will invest $5 billion in bank of americaffett endorsed the struggling bank in a statement today, calling it a strong, well-led company. bank of america's stock has lost more than half of its value in the last year, over its mortgage problems and concerns it lacks sufficient capital. the prime minister of india called today for parliament to discuss demands by an aging activist on a hunger strike. 74-year-old activist anna hazare has been fasting for nine days to highlight his crusade against corruption. prime minister manmohan singh addressed lawmakers today on hazare's plan. he also urged the activist to halt his hunger strike. >> he has made his point. it has been registered with us. i respect his idealism. i respect him as an individual. his life is much too precious and, therefore, i would urge sri anna hazare to end his fast. >> holman: in response, hazare greeted thousands of cheering supporters at his protest camp in new delhi, surrounded by indian flags. they want an ombudsman with sweeping powers to investigate, amo

insurance companies, also making the ratings of warren buffett's berkshire hathaway negative.listen, asia, mike, getting absolutely pounded. the president came on yesterday -- >> why? >> some people say it's maybe a little much. >> why? >> he's the president of the united states. this is a near catastrophic occurrence, your 401(k)s, your losing your retirement funds, the huge companies get in trouble. the president of the united states comes on and has absolutely nothing to say. >> that's not true. >> what did he say. >> do you want me to tell you? let's roll it. let's talk about when the president said yesterday when the closing bell rang on wall street, the dow finished down 634 points. that was the sixth worst point loss in the index history, the s&p fell 80 points while the nasdaq dropped 174 points. president obama reaffirmed his belief in the strength of the nation's credit, but added that the rate cut could be useful in future deficit talks. >> markets will rise and fall, but this is the united states of america. no matter what some agency may say, we've always been and

we did see the markets get an initial pop at the opening bell thanks to berkshire hathaway.ank of america is surging 12%. apple is lower 1.75%. they are not concerned about the future of apple after steve jobs. stock is trading at $371 a share. a majority of analysts have a price of $500 a share or higher. investors know apple is a sound company without jobs at the helm. since he announced the leave this year. apple shares have gained 17%. >> it is tim cook that will take over that job from jobs. is there a feeling that apple will remain the same? >> reporter: there is that feeling. you know, tim cook, fredricka, has been running the day-to-day operations since jobs took medical leave in january. he has 30 years experience in the computer industry. he worked at ibm and compaq. he was named coo in 2005. he negotiated with wireless networks that carried the iphone. one thing cook is responsible for is the retail store strategy. everyone knows the apple store when they see one. cook sent out an e-mail to employees saying apple will not change. he wrote that steve built a compan

he is the principal owner of his company, berkshire hathaway. if you count taxes of the company that he owns pays, he is paying a fairly high tax rate. if we want to get this debt down and get the tax revenues up, we to create a lot more rich people. i'm tired of the idea in washington about the idea that it is ignoble to be rich. we need more warren buffetts. he is a great american hero. host: the number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week below400,000, assigned the job market is improving slowly after a recent slump. guest: that is good news. when unemployment insurance claims for, that is an indicator rates will come down. perhaps we'll see the unemployment rate falls below 9%. that is still a disaster. we're supposed to be in an economic recovery right now. we have had 9% unemployment now or ball for 24 of the past 26 months. a tweet. have 8 guest: i don't understand that. it does exactly the opposite. if you are an american company, a car company, afford. ford produces a car in the united states. there is no tax applied t

buffett berkshire hathaway owns a main stake in moody's. how progressive of mr. obama. he thinks one of the country's richest men is an oracle but small town farmers are domes who have been duped by special interests. the larger pattern is that mr. obama ms. everything said by anyone engaged in profit-seeking business except when the comments support his policies. >> that's again from the "wall street journal" editorial page. lee in atlanta, you are on the air. what do you think is the impact of the bus tour. >> caller: i think it was very good in a sense but it missed an opportunity. one of the opportunities is for the president to restore the system. the buck may stop with the president but it begins in your local area. and most area does not have job creation type ordinances. it does not create the kind of environment where the individual, where their company that is having problems can go to competent people at the local area that can help make plans and do what they can do at the look area and then if they forward that up, the chain of command to the federal level

he is the principal owner of his company, berkshire hathaway. if you count taxes of the company that he owns pays, he is paying a fairly high tax rate. if we want to get this debt down and get the tax revenues up, we to create a lot more rich people. i'm tired of the idea in washington about the idea that it is ignoble to be rich. we need more warren buffetts. he is a great american hero. host: the number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week below400,000, assigned the job market is improving slowly after a recent slump. guest: that is good news. when unemployment insurance claims for, that is an indicator rates will come down. perhaps we'll see the unemployment rate falls below 9%. that is still a disaster. we're supposed to be in an economic recovery right now. we have had 9% unemployment now or ball for 24 of the past 26 months. a tweet. have 8 guest: i don't understand that. it does exactly the opposite. if you are an american company, a car company, afford. ford produces a car in the united states there is no tax applied to