buffett's berkshire hathaway now holds 9.4% stake in the bake. >>> warren buffett's berkshire hathaway is acquiring 40% of the operator of pilot and flying j travel centers where truckers and drivers can refuel, eat, and shop. the company says it generates more than $20 billion in annual revenue. berkshire did not disclose. >>> remember the 2013 hack at yahoo! that compromised more than a billion accounts? now yahoo! believes that all of the approximately 3 billion yahoo! user accounts existing at that time were affected. verizon, which now owns yahoo!'s core assets, says it is continuing to work closely with law enforcement. >>> the former ceo of equifax was also on capitol hill today. lawmakers described the massive data breach at the company as a travesty. and that was just the beginning. aditi roy reports . >> good morning. the subcommittee on digital commerce and consumer protection will come to order. >> reporter: former equifax ceo richard smith took the hot seat this morning in front of a house subcommittee, ready to answer tough questions on the company's massive cybersecurity

investment over there you still have a higher rate than the united states on a personal basis and berkshire hathaways, i hope they do change it now i would like it in the sense that it would be good for a million shareholders of berkshire in terms of their debt returns. but i do think that some of the argument arguments, i think people may find their nose growing a little bit after they make them >> now, when you start thinking about what all of this means, just the uncertainty of whether or not this tax plan gets passed, it is something that buffett said is impacting his very own behavior at berkshire hathaway now that's something that almost never happens, he never pays attention to what is happening in washington. never pays all that much attention to what is happening in the short-term in the markets. says this time is different. you have such a significant potential change that is happening and we're at the end of the year, he says he'll probably know in the next month to two months for sure if these changes will be made for next calendar year or for this calendar year and as a result, he's not

are they owning berkshire hathaway, same amount? >> as an asset manager you have to have discipline. >> agreed. >> a new client coming in, is it a buy, hold or sell at that point, and then you look at it you'll say on a valuation basis i think i do want to own it but we'll wait for the right time. >> you have accounts with big gains and you'll rebalance them so you'll sell bath heir way on the same day that you'll buy it for someone else. >> everything that you're saying and what you wrote in your letter, which is a good letter, is absolutely true. >> right. >> and in particular the comment that you make about you can't scale, it okay now, look, let be clear. what we're talking about here is not whether stock picking is a way to generate output we're talking about how do you want to run your business. i submit to you just as a counterpoint that you can, very few of us can, but some of us can have a very good business doing the sort of things that you are correctly pointing out are a mishigosh but there have to be rules. you have to

know, companies like amazon breaching 1,000, while apple is over $200, you know, and certainly berkshire hathaway. all in all it's a cachet, if you will of having an exclusive on a high-priced commodity. >> those higher per share prices are a result of a trend away from stock splits. fewer companies are not splitting their shares. this year there's only been five s&p 500 splits, only eight in all of 2016, compared to 102 in 1997. companies used to split their stock prices so if a stock got to be $200 a share, the company would just issue 4 for 1 stock price, the price would go down to $50. it wouldn't change your position, but it would be easier for more investors to buy in. >> a higher per share price says not about an overall company or market valuation, but as markets have evolved toss more etf driven, some argue there's been less demand from retail investors for buying and selling individual stocks, for "nightly business repor" i'm dominic chu. >> sales take off with the snack maker, and that's where we begin the market focus. the maker of or i don'ts said cost cuts and stronger demand helped

when berkshire hathaway sells a bond issue, guess what the foreign subsidiaries of certain very cashse bonds so the money comes back to berkshire hathaway, we pay interest to the foreign subsidiary of the cash rich country over there, but that money ends up in the united states think of it this way -- >> there is trillions over there, though, right i would rather have -- isn't there 2 or 3 trillion? i would rather have that back here there is infrastructure. >> let's say you have two companies, company a and company b and both have a trillion dollars over there and company a borrows a trillion from company b and company b borrows a trillion from company a, now all $2 trillion back here and it is available for investment >> you got -- you're so smart, you know how to do all these things before they get done. that's why you like that -- you don't care about estate taxes, you got more things going on to get around it than -- you're just too smart, too smart. if everybody had you running their money, we wouldn't need any tax reform >> i can tell you exactly the secret about not having an

but berkshire hathaway is no longer the largest shareholder in ibm.ow does that affect the company ? does supply at positive glow. i am not sure how that will play with investors. patient, but tired. they are not looking at what investors are doing, but what is the company going to do during that revenue growth? i think it is getting close, but not quite there yet. emily: watson and blockchain are two that's ibm is making on the future. when will these bets pay off and how big will they be? take a while.ill blockchain in particular, maybe four or five years to gain traction. benefits.some niche watson is more of a halo to wrap around a lot of things. watson has a lot of complexity to it, and it is hard to implement in the large categories. it looks best with large companies willing to take the time to help watson get trained, to tackle the complex problems they have. i do not know if watson will be the key generator of revenue growth. it will be a core factor. a lot of the ai technology will be sold as middleware. that will be the secret for ibm, how

but there is reason to believe that berkshire hathaway is lightening up on some of these positions.ip function on the bloomberg, on delta berkshireown, hathaway, the top holder. filings.last 13 taking some profits and our bloomberg intelligence analysts were chatting about this and he says more about that is known for liking industries that have a moat around them and he thinks this is more of a tactical trade on the part of warren buffett's lieutenant with seems to be successful with a 50% profit. vonnie: thank you with our stock of the hour. silicon valley versus washington , google summit about 200 politicians from around the world to discuss whether google is an attractive target for government regulators. new information could make google's job tougher and it admitted taking political advertisement from russia looking to influence the u.s. presidential election. they join facebook and twitter already under investigation by congress. joining us is our bloomberg technology reporter. what do we know? what is different between the companies on this matter? >> all three companies ar

think what warren buffettt was saying since he's a ceo of a company, if we were to sell as berkshire hathawaye tax rates might be lower down the road we're not talking about lowering the capital gains tax for individuals. >> okay. >> it's not about you and me deciding, let's wait until january 2nd. >> so by lowering -- >> to sell all my stocks if it's a company that -- >> tax on profitability. >> owns an investment, then maybe you would wait. >> which is interesting, dennis, it makes you wednesdayer then about the conglomerates, anybody else out there thinking about doing things like spinoffs, divestitures, where that could affect those choices as well i'm sure there are deal makers crawling all over that. >> absolutely, i have a rule, kelly, something you don't understand on wall street, the reason, the answer is taxes. and that is a very good point. if you can dispose of an asset with a very low tax basis you bought 40 years ago at a far different rate, i think buffett has got it right just wait and hold on and see where that come in makes perfect sense. >> what you think, by the way, of h

berkshire hathaway, chief investment officer says diverse set of businesses at warren buffett shop makeof the american economy. you have rails, insurance, consumer companies all built in there, utilities, power generation as well if you're looking for a mini conglomerate like the economy, check out berkshire hathaway. >> dom, i have a question. >> yes. >> the dow is price weighted index, so let's throw berkshire into the dow, all of a sudden we're at dow 40,000 overnight. >> we could, but maybe look at the b shares it wouldn't be so bad, right >> that's true it would help though you don't like the makeup? just switch the components dom, thank you very much let's talk more about this incredible market run, bring in cnbc contributors tim seymour with trio general and kenny pulkari. how much do you think the current components of the dow reflect the real economy is it time for a little updating here i know that wasn't the topic of the segment, but you can handle anything. >> no, i don't think so. they changed the components of the dow, what, four or five years ago when they added microsoft

. >> the three top on the list warren buffet, of course, ceo of berkshire hathaway. he is worth 78 billion doll ars. >> then ceo of amazon before his company please come to us jeff bezos worth $81.5 billion >> bill gates, wow, $89 billion. >> this is just u.s. billion airs. >> sorry, just a few minutes, last night we had big award ceremony, john mccain was honored there with the liberty medal and then we had vp joe biden but there was a major ceo executive in town for that event, who was in for that event. my thinking i thought maybe it was from amazon and you know we have that deadline for amazon on thursday so that would be interesting if he was prechecking us out. i need to check which one it was out. >> was bezos here. >> there was a major ceo of that caliber in town for that event. if it was him, that would be tipping the card in our favor. >> was he tipping his hand. >> that would be checking it out trying to see. >> they will make decision thursday. >> yeah. >> all right. >> are we still playing the stain game. >> we are it is a long game, lieutenant of stains

the berkshire hathaway -- >> is the comparison apt because they're a big conglomerate with a lot of moneystein, talking about the performance of softbank, said over the last ten years berkshire produced 129% total shareholder return while softbank is 320% in u.s. dollars. >> well, the time when it masen to say -- would have been the equivalent of 1965 for buffett we made all his best investments that did stupendously well long before people were saying warren buffett is coming with his money. right now softbank -- >> that's true. >> coming with its war chest they need to put to work. >> i think that's a very good point. we're not going to hear anymore from you. >> i think i'm done. >>> tesla troubles model 3 is the reason behind concerns over the stock. has analysts disturbed we'll ta alkbout whether they need to raise prices, coming up. throughout my career, i've been fortunate enough to travel to many interesting places. i've always wanted to create those experiences for others. with my advisor's help along the way, it's finally my turn to be the host. when you have the right financial

. >> look at berkshire hathaway. four of the stocks hitting 52-week highs today are not only hitting 52-week highs, they are hitting all-time highs berkshire, jpmorgan, and then you drop down into some of them that obviously had more issues during the financial crisis like citi and like bank of america, but you look at the stocks that are breaking out, hitting new 52-week highs, and like i say, the first two, all-time highs. jpmorgan, all-time highs that's one of the reasons i really like morgan stanley as well here because i think it is still undervalued at these levels, judge, because you look at where it was in '08 versus jpmorgan and you look at the outperformance of jamie dimon's firm i like morgan on a catchup, not all the way to jpmorgan, but i like them coming out. >> do i hear skepticism in your voice about the rally? i mean, you certainly wouldn't be on an island if you were skeptical but you'd also be part of a road kill pile of people who have been skeptical for a while and this real, as we said, continues

low-cost index funds, a basket of stocks or i give it to warren buffett and i do this by buying berkshire hathawayand this is a basket of stock he has. he is the onehe person on the planet who has a different value assigned to. people pay more for his money because of his reputation and he gets deals no one ever gets, so i have long lambasted him for being in this situation, and then i just gave up and surrender to. i'm so happy i surrendered. i own a bunch of brookshire hathaway stock. >> hello. i wonder approximately what percentage or to what degree you choose how to repair the practice this interview and the responsepr? [laughter] >> she asked how much we prepared. >> tomorrow night we are in new york and the next night boston. >> where were we last night? >> we did this before at politics and prose of the street, but this is a slightly larger crowd. >> i don't know if you have ever actually talk to me about my book. >> this is fake news. i always ask you about your book. >> he wrote a book about george washington. >> really have a couple minutes.: are you still there softball commissioner for

yvonne: warren buffett, berkshire hathaway has named the new ceo for their dairy queen business.rence for internal talent. dairy queen licenses its services to many locations worldwide. plenty more coming up, the market open in japan. also, an exclusive interview with lawrence ho in about 30 minutes time. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ yvonne: we are live from bloomberg's asian headquarters. friday,stories this heading for their best week since july. growing optimism about the global economy. numbers expressed hawkish numbers. betty: from here in new york, i am betty liu. catalan leaders are said to step back from media independence. indicating a willingness to pull out. china's growing military influence with its first overseas-based being followed by others. ♪ yvonne: what a day on wall street. we will take it here in asia. most markets are in holiday mode, especially in hong kong. you can see asian stocks outperforming the likes of the u.s. and europe. this is in dollar terms. it is also a signal of caution as well. are we being a little more complacent in this euphoria? there is a lo

rates that's going to encourage even more investment over there on a personal basis and for berkshire hathawayhareholders, i hope they do change it up. it would be good for a million shareholders of berkshire in terms of their net return bus i think the arguments -- i think people may find their nose growing after they make them the truth was that 99% of the people were perfectly decent people, they were just like the people working at goldman or some other place and somebody had gone haywire and other people didn't report it. bank of america has done a sensational job under brian moynihan brian had all kinds of problems when he came in, they were not of his own doing we'll be holders of b of a stock for a long, long, long time. >> buffett discussing the markets. what's important to take away from that first soundbite, melissa, is he made it very clear valuations look good, relative to interest rates, that's a big calve yot. >> he did say interest rates would remain low up to 5% so there's quite a bit of leeway. >> and that gives you the perspective he has because for anybody in this day in ag

the one that i would pick is berkshire hathaway nothing matches perfectly when you are dealing with an individual stocks. it tends to follow the market carefully overall. honey well has diversities >> those are my choices. >> what's good for ag age and g for the market >> was there something similar to gm? >> what's good for gm is good for america. you heard of jp morgan >> i guess what i am getting is, gm got booted from the dow is there any chatter that ge could lose its perks that's $10 closest to the dow. general electric has little influence of the dow jones >> bob pisani. >> thank you >>> president trump narrowed it down to five steve liesman joining us who wall street should lead the fed. >> you can see here of the blue line who really pick 45% powell. 44% say janet yellen and going in the next, you can see two previous runners, kevin ward is in first place and any director, who was in first place not too long ago, now less than 5% on both count moving along on the screen here, we ask who's your top pick dealing with these important issues yellen wins most of them who's the econ

it comes to a conglomerate type, maybe not as much ge these days, but look no further than berkshire hathawayin thinks. he said warren buffett's company has a set of businesses that are like a smaller set of the american economy everyone has a different view, of course, on what companies are the best indicators of the market or economy right now. but one thing is for certain, guys america and its top companies will always have to evolve with the times and the bellwethers will change, too, sara back over to you guys. >> i grew up in an era where it was the company who rang the bell this morning. 3m ia look at the sheer number of skus remember that, when their earnings came out? it was a big macropicture. >> it continues to be to a certain extent without a doubt >> i feel like you need a technology bellwether, a consumer bellwether, an industrial economy bellwether. you can't just have one blanket bellwether with your report, it also makes me wonder whether ge deserves its spot in the dow and whether that's the point of the dow jon jones. >> there was a time not too long ago, when cisco, many p

the -- axalta's biggest shareholder is warren buffett's berkshire hathaway.athan:nk you -- thank you. the catalan president is facing up to 30 years in jail of declaring independence. spain's government is taking action to take control of the region. the latest from barcelona. maria, great to have you on the program. where is the catalan president now? maria: that is the big question in barcelona. he was ousted from office on friday after he made that declaration of independence. i can tell you we have been here for hours. this is his place of work and he has not shown up. it is fair to say that he has not put up any fight yet. we are getting unconfirmed reports that a state prosecutor will press charges. the question is that it could be a sedition case or there could be a rebellion against the state charges. jonathan: what the prime minister would like requires cooperation from the regional police. is he going to get it? maria: that is a big question. we have talked about this on the show for many times. if you don't have support on the ground, it's very dif

is john augustine at huntington private bank, their chief investment officer he says look at berkshire hathawayett has a cross section of services, industrial, consumer goods, all of those make it a nice microcosm of the american economy so as we talk about bellwethers, they are indicative of the overall market but maybe ge, not as much right now, it may be in the future, but these are some of the stocks that investors could look to, sa sara, guys, for just a look at what the overall economy might be looking like for the u.s. markets here >> you know, realistically, ge hasn't been a bellwether for a long, long time. i mean, as everybody probably figured out, i own a couple shares in my 401(k) since ge used to own cnbc years ago and being a ge shareholder has been a lot like being a cubs fan over the years but we all know what the cubs did for them so that was a good possibility you have to believe that john flannery is not going to take this lying down. he's coming out swinging -- >> yeah. >> exactly everything is on the table and we will see. there's a new sheriff in town. >> they're trying to

berkshire hathaway has acquired a 38.6% stake in pilot flying j. series of truck stops across the country. to 80% laterp up on. jordan is now on the phone with more is ed hammond. think truck stops are no big deal. this is 27,000 employees and $20 billion in revenue. of the biggest privately owned american companies out there. i think it's in the top 25 in terms of revenue. it has a network of truck stops across the country. this is a business with very strong potential for growth in the future. this investment will also lead to a bigger increase in his position in 2023 when he becomes the majority owner of this company. management about the of the company? is that going to change? >> it stays as is. i spoke to the chairman of this company on the phone last night and the management is something he is very keen on. that is going to stay in place. the family is going to remain in place and even when mr. buffett goes on to be majority owner they will keep a substantial stake in the company. this feels like a warren buffett kind of deal. the family kno

two parameters in berkshire hathaway managed an even more incredible feat. -- amateurs.in one! it isa have never managed a hole in one! it is a combination of skill, luck, being in the right place at the right time. what are the chances... iam about right time. what are the chances... i am about to tell you! two consecutive holes in one. never previously played together, they play in berkshire, on the 13th, one hit a hole in one, celebrations, then the other one steps up to the tee and she hits a hole in one too. according to the national hole in one registry, who knew that existed? the chances of hitting two consecutive holes in one in the same round of 70 million to one. completely amazed i have got a hole in one before it dawned on us we had both done it and that must be pretty rare. it was so exciting. we did high fives, probably a little dance, i cannot remember, so lovely. high fives, probably a little dance, i cannot remember, so lovelylj imagine an astronomical drinks bill. tradition is, after you have scored a hole in one, you have to buy a drink for everyone in

he gets all capital gains below surface of berkshire hathaway.al. they should be removed to be very honest. but they aren't. they get the normal guy working hard to raise his marginal tax rate, it makes no sense whatsoever. if that is the price we have to pay, let's pay it, because it's a great bill he has got. long time. with durable durability and rugged ruggedness. i like the extra power hauling power maxi power!!! and quality. seems they make them strong extra strong mile after mile after mile. ♪chevrolet! stuart: yes, it is a monday morning rally. yes, another new high, 23,360. take that. how about home depot? top booster of the dow. it is up two bucks. 1.29% helping the dow. >>> now this. "the washington post" full editorial board is calling on white house chief of staff john kelly to apologize to democrat congressman frederica wilson. joining us rob o'neill, former navy seal and fox news contributor. you're a military guy. what do you say, when "the washington post" tells general kelly says, hey, apologize? >> if there is video and there i