mr. buffett to try to figure out the answers here. >> yeah.visa and mastercard both. >> i do. i also like directv. these are good investments. these two gentlemen obviously had a good year and hopefully for mr. buffett when he comes back and talks about it again next year, they did so again. we shall see. >>> coming up, not so fast, anthony, it's your turn to show us how to manage a losing trade. >>> and you tweet it, we trade it. four plays on four stocks you asked for on twitter when we come back. so free credit score's redesigned site has this new score planner tool with these cool sliders. this one lets us know what happens if someone checks our credit. oh. this one lets us know what happens if we pay off our loans. yeah. what's this one do? i dunno. ♪every rose has it's thorn ♪just like every night has it's dawn♪ score planner is free to everyone. free score applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com bret michaels slider still in beta. >>> not so fast. our traders are quick. they are not always right. let's take a listen to what antho

mr. buffett. e-mail my cv and a column i wrote back in march of 2008, where i explained the ration naarationale of why t back then, almost five years ago and continued to be a successful short and surprisingly, for the right reasons. i included four references. of hedge fund managers and investment managers that i knew were close acquaintances of mr. buffett. and who were willing to give me a nice reference. >> doug, it's karen. let me ask you something. >> hi, karen. >> where in your list of bull lbullets bear case, where would warren's death be a catalyst for the event, not that anyone wishes that, but it is certainly -- he's an asset there. >> no, that was my -- actually, as i recall, i'm looking at it right now, my first bullet point is, there will never be another warren buffett and i expressed the facts, what the table is, and that is today, he has four to five years of life expectancy. we share something in common, he has prostate cancer and i just had prostate cancer surgery, as you know.

buffett's top five holdings and berkshire hathaway. we have wells fargo, ibm, american express and proctor and gamble. mr. rren buffett saying he is still buying stocks because he sees good value there. berkshire raising 128. so let's analyze the strategy here. joining us from nyse is director with o'neill securities and from cme group, director of tjm institutional services, also a cnbc contributor. good to see you both. kenny, i will start with you. do you agree with the way mr. warren buffett is investing these days? >> i do. first of all, it is warren buffett, if you have his money and buy these things, no matter what you have goes up. we hear from economist and strategist that people looking for 2013 and 2014 to be a real return to equities. i think when warren buffett stands up and makes that solid commentary about what he thinks, and he also has a big surprise sending us over the edge, by the way. i think it is a good shot in the arm for u.s. equities and it is a good message for individuals that are trying to get back into the market. that is still nervous. >> does it reassure the individual invest

mr. buffett said apple's ceo should stop worrying about pushing the stock price up and instead get to work on building the company's value. well, maybe we'll have to "watch" and see. consider all the new patents for which apple has applied. 79 of those patent requests have the word "wrist" in them, and new reports say apple will release a smart watch, or iphone-like wristwatch, in 2013. according to bloomberg news, the tech giant has dedicated 100 designers to the vision. the nicknamed i-watch has been rumored for some time, and could yield four times the gross profits of an apple television, also rumored to be in the works. monster beverage is defending itself against a lawsuit that claims the company's caffeinated energy drink caused the death of a 14-year-old girl. anais fournier went into cardiac arrest and died after drinking two 24-ounce cans of monster drinks in a 24-hour period. the company says no blood test was performed on the girl and therefore caffeine toxicity could not be proved. the food and drug administration is investigating deaths linked to energy drinks. flavor-infused

mr. buffett himself and oracle's larry ellison. still to come, how a tip-off from march madness can bring a bounce to your finances. that's later. but first, why boomers are taking more than baby steps toward owning a home. a shocker from the housing sector is next with bill moller. this might surprise you: there is really a booming number of boomers who are becoming first- time home-buyers. it's a fact. what's behind this? let's talk with ryan gable. he is the founder of a realty that for almost 10 years has been focusing solely on the first- time homebuyer. now, we typically think of the first- timers as being a young couple, some people in their 20s. > > yes. all we deal with are first-time home-buyers, and what we have noticed over the past few years is that the group over 40-years-old takes up about 20% of our market. > who are these people? were they previously renters? > > pretty much all of them. what has happened is that they have gone through some sort of a lifestyle change. a big one is maybe somebody that has gone throu

mr. buffett. sometimes i think we forget he runs an enormous company. the largest market cap companies in the country. in addition to being the oracle of omaha, and wanting to listen to him for stock advice. they own burlington northern. >> i know. >> quarter of a million -- >> you can go over and over it again. he represents american business basically and american finance. >> berkshire was pointed to as performance, and for him a great barometer of the u.s. stock market overall. hitting a record high last week. that is really reflective of where the u.s. stock market is going. because of the diversity of warren buffett's portfolio. in talking about treasuries being the dumbest investment around, that's a judgment call on where he sees cash. cash he would rather go buy an elephant, as opposed to having all that cash on the balance sheet. that is sort of a backhanded slap on apple, sitting on $137 billion in cash. >> apple only down a little bit today. it's monday. usually apple is down four or five. tuesday it's down three, four. i'm trying to remember

mr. buffett coming next. >>> and someone says they have evidence that rich are paying more than their fair share. coming up. >>> then a massive bubble to burst and rock the global economy? one guest warning that china's real estate market could collapse and drag the u.s. down with it. stay with us. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of long weekends and longer retirements. ♪ ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. ♪ how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. >>> a growing number of pros are saying the profits not reserve are driving this profit. warren buffett is not one of them. listen to what he said today on "squawk box." >> i think bernanke has sort of carried the lo

mr. buffett because he doesn't have to pay out $5 billion for those warrants and for goldman sachs.to the shareholder base because under treasury accounting those options and warrants have been accounted for. so essentially a win-win, one trader saying, for both sides. its stock is higher in early trading. >> it's an important story. thanks, mary. mary thompson at hq. >> let's get to "six in 60." >> everyone is trying to create valuation in this one. they're going to take over and i don't think so. >> ray jay, up pea body. people are switching back to coal and be careful because coal in the end is a declining commodity in this country. citi says buy allem ease. and i really like this company and it's worth more than it's selling for. >> credit suisse cutting schlumberger. people are all cutting numbers and no bottom yet for schlumberger. >> some of the parts story on pepsi. >> goldman says it's not that compelling. look, it's never been a sum of the parts. it's just an inexpensive long-term growth stock. people want to pay more for growth. >> and finally, steve cutting southwest. th

buffett. we've been soliciting your questions for mr. bust over the last several days and as always, he he didn't disappoint. you have e-mailed, tweeted, facebooked and shared your thoughts on linkedin. before we get to that, joe is going to give us a quick rundown of the morning's top headlines. >> hey, beck. i know the sequester is hitting everybody hard, but this is your new set up there with the boxes and the -- usually we can splurge a little bit more. this is affecting everyone, i think. >> this -- it is. but this was a purchase. berkshire never gave any numbers on this, but it was reported that this was a purchase of about $500 million. >> whoa. >> but it was what we twauts the company's most recent acquisition. he surprised us with another purchase since then, but yeah, when we were planning on this and putting everything together, this was what we thought was his most recent acquisition. >> i was thinking about that sequester. buffett could take care of it himself if he really wanted to. does he have his checkbook with him? i me

mr. buffett like to do in bed. that is called standard deviation. it's a measure of risk.hen you look at the measures of risk, he is pretty high up there. berkshire hathaway is a fairly high level of risk for the amount of return that you're taking. that means, he is a value investor. he goes in there. he buys companies, allegedly by the markets. he rolls the dice on companies like lubrizol or, what is the other one, burlington-northern railroads and, you know, he loses sometimes and he wins sometimes. the problem with his numbers, that based on the risk that he is taking, he is not generating the type of returns. we should point out that berkshire hathaway is obviously very profitable. in his, i believe his letter came out on friday. i think they made this year something like $24 billion. he is also said that his company may be too big to manage, right? 250 -- $240 billion market cap, right? that is hard to produce outsized returns when dealing with that much money. you have to make bigger and better bets. that said, he can easily return mon to shareholders. he is loathe

mr. buffett will be on "squawk box" on monday answering all of your questions.em in on askwarren@cnbc.com or tweet with the #askwarren. >> and we don't mean elizabeth. >>> the deadline has passed for the u.s. government to reach a deal to prevent sequester. president obama will issue a sequestration order. it will be as close to midnight as possible. john harwood gives us the latest on the budget battle from washington. >> what we saw on thursday was the flickering of the last hopes that congress might avert the sequester at the very last minute. the house of representatives departed washington for the weekend having failed to pass an alternative to the sequester in this congress. they did pass one in the last congress. the senate, controlled by democrats, took up two alternatives. one republican, one democrat. both failed to get the 60 votes necessary to become enacted. therefore, there was no solution from congress. business leaders went to both capitol hill and to the white house to appeal for compromise. here is scott davis of ups. >> certainly we have, you

mr. buffett on "squawk box." it's all starting in just a few moments. get your e-mails in.ew, joe, they're all there. we hope you have a good day. >> and join us back here tomorrow on "worldwide exchange." have a good one.

buffett though. nobody in the world has been a better stock-picker than mr. warren buffett.e will come out with his letter to the shareholders, always very folksy. liz, are we expecting in the letter? liz: we're looking for predictions. predictions on the housing market. when he makes predictions from others. he doesn't say he thinks he will see. he says here is what i see that makes me believe it will continue. he made a mistake year-and-a-half ago on housing. he admitted that. he thought housing was ready to come back. it was not ready to come back. obviously remember he has housing-related companies in a big way. acme brick, shaw carpet. benjamin moore paint, yes, buffett owns that. clayton homes one the largest in the world that makes prefab bring indicated hopes. i'm interested to know about discretionary things. i owns several jewelry stores including, what floor -- borsheim's. it will be interesting to see if people. housing relate stock. insurance business, that is always the clue, david. david: will he say anything about heinz? the sec is investigating up with of th

mr. warren buffett.d the top and bottom lines here's what analysts are telling me they are looking for. one, the insurance business, any impact from superstorm sandy. two, they have shown decent results in their manufacturing and retail businesses the last year so the street will want to know if those trends are continuing. the energy business, are they seeing any pushback from regulators? finally, last fall berkshire raisedits accommodate a stakeholder and analysts will want to know if that's continuing. the stock, by the way, hitting an all-time high just yesterday. back to you guys. >> josh, thank you very much. heading towards the close here with about 20 minutes left. the dow is still up about 30 points. maria? >> are the worst days behind best buy? investors buying up the stock today. a big move despite the troubling results. we'll tell you about it when we come right back. >> andrew mason has had better weeks after being fired. the company's founder fired as groupon's ceo, but he wrote arguably th

mr. gates. bill gates. he is pretty impressive. his buddy, the oracle of ormoc, warren buffett. and nice guy.cest in the world, i would say per billion, perhaps the nicest guy among all of the oligarchs that i know. all of them with their -- they have way too much money and wait to politically dangerous once they start moving all that money around. i cannot sell like the law when they do that. if you notice, bloomberg. i mean, he is not smiling and i don't know why. he is the seventh richest man in the country. i know he is behind these, but he is doing well. bill gates is the richest person in america. he has a net worth of $67 billion. this is what he said just earlier this month. >> some days i wish we had a system like the u.k. where the party in power could do a lot. now it feels like i wish there was slightly more power in the presidency to avoid some of these deadlocks. lou: more power for the presidency? president obama may have to deal with some stubborn and aggressive congressman but gates, he is free to use the money anyway he wants, and the well. but working to get the president m

buffett is betting he will get more bang for his buck giving it to the guy they call mr. salty, than other guy we know as uncle sam. they like government. like to idea of wealthy giving more. just not in their case. focus on their words, yes. but focus on their wallets. definitely. see for yourself tonight for when the first time in a television interview i try and get bill gates to focus on both. when bill discusses our bills, i guarantee you it will make you think differently about how even the richest advocates for bigger got say one thing and do another -- bigger government say one thing and do another. three hours from now on fox business. if you don't get it -- >> demand it. i >> neil: if you watch that other bill as i am talking to that richer bill. you know what it will be? it will be a best-seller. me killing you. this is important, folks. the countdown is on. the moment is now. billionaire takes in the largest of consequences, debate of our time. what is the obligation of the government to you and your obligation of yourself to the government? not a commercial f

mr. demers, welcome back to "mad money." >> good to see you again, jim. >> all right, david, no doubt you heard the warren buffett comments. where is burlington northern, where is csx, where is union pacific in terms of the seriousness with which they're addressing locomotive engines for natural gas? >> i think it's very serious. it's been no secret, we're also working with cn rail, another one of the big players, and with the announcement with caterpillar and their emd division last june, it's no secret that everybody is really excited about the opportunity, and frankly, i don't think it's going to be years away. you can see everybody's moving now. they have to move. whether we get the entire rail industry converted over the next decade is another question. but people are moving now. it's really exciting. >> couldn't you just tell me what it looks like? here's what i'm thinking, you tell me. there's a train and behind it are some tanks, and because they carry the stuff, they could have tank after tank. do today really need to stop and get filled up all the time? >> no, it's one of the beauties of what's going on. i'm sur

mr. hartford, thanks for joining us today. getting something for nothing? who doesn't love that, right? >> i'd love that. warren buffettxactly that, but it was pretty close. his latest big score up next. zap technology. arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. ♪ your finances can't manage themselves, but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can, a certified financial planner professional. cfp -- let's make a plan. >>> we all know warren buffett is well nope for his shrewd deals. now there's the latest in which he will become one of the goldman sachs largest shareholders, and it didn't cost him a thing when all was said and done. mary thompson with details. >> that's what you call sweet payback. in the depths of the financial crisis, buffett threw goldman a life line. getting warren to buy $5 billion of stock in the future. with goldman having purchased the preferred stock, the

buffett was asked, did you do any of these other deals? he referred back to the transaction that we did five years deal which was approved every year by the auditors and gave mr. spritzer all of the transactions that they had done. so he jumps on this transaction. he did not know reserves from premium. he did not know. to talk about baseball would have been the same thing. he had no knowledge of any of that, but he used that to bludgeon the board. and my friend sitting here was on the board to time. a stand-up person, my say. he and another board member, probably the only to who bought this silliness that was being presented. the auditors college and approve this five years a row withdrew their approval. you know, if they don't sign off on year-end results it might cause a little shaky is in the value of the company. we were a triple-a-rated company and the highest ratings. a growth pattern that was the envy of the zero industry. and it was clear that spencer was going to demand my head. and this change in corporate governance that we refer to really became -- this is a great example of what happened. the destruction that it led to, it was just unbelievable.

buffetter, man, i'll looking around. rudy giuliani used to say look around carefully when you walk outside. >> republicans have been asking about the economy for a long time. >> if you're going to do about mrgoes to washington it has to be about something more mainstream than drone strikes in america. >> how about your other point i liked better? chris christie. he really clocks andrew cuomo in this poll we read about in today's "new york post." chris christie's a guy -- i think the conservative political action committee is nuts not to have invited him. we've already covered that story here. but clearly, he's the most popular governor in a the country. popular guy in a blue state. he's exactly the kind of guy republicans need. and yet they dis him left and right. i don't get it. >> he doesn't toe the party line all the time. but he toes the public's line. the mood changes in the public. he's a straight talker. cuomo i just don't think people are convinced is a straight talker p the lights went out in new york and long island and we couldn't get them back on. he said that power company better answer to me. it turned out they've been under his control for the last six years. they were answe

buffett was asked, did you do any of these other deals? he referred back to the transaction we did five years ago, which was approved every year by the auditors, and gave mr. spitzer all the transactions they had done. so spitzer jumped on this transaction. he didn't know reserves from premiums. talk about baseball, wasn't the same thing and that he had no knowledge of any of that. but he used that to bludgeon the board, and my friend sitting here, mr. combs, was on the board at the time. a stand of person i might say. he and hills, was on the board probably the only two who fought this silliness that was being presented. the audit was approved for five years in a row, was through their approval. you know, the auditors don't sign off on your end result. that caused a little shaken is in the value of the company. we were aaa rated country, the highest ratings, had a growth pattern that was the envy of the whole industry. and it was clear that spitzer was going to demand my head. and this change in corporate governance that i referred to really became the great example of what happened, the destruction that it led to was just unbelievable. there was a meeti

so buffett was asked, did you do any of these other deals and he referred back to the transaction five years ago, which was approved every year by the auditors and gave mr. there are the transactions they had done. so spitzer jumps on this transaction. he did a reserves from premium. he could talk about baseball and it would've been the same. he had no knowledge. he used that to bludgeon the board. and my friend, mr. khan was on the board at the time. a standup person i might say. he was on the board. probably the only two who fought the silliness being presented. the auditors approved this for five years in a row, withdrew their approval. if the auditors don't sign off on the year-end results, that will cause a little shakiness in the value of the come any. we're a aaa rated company, had the highest rating and a growth pattern that was the envy of the whole industry. it was clear spitzer was going to demand my head. this change in corporate governance that i referred to really became a great example of what happened, the destruction that led to was just unbelievable. there was a meeting holub uptown tpd was the head of the firm and a good friend of spa

mr. van hollen's proposal is responsible, fair, and balanced. it cuts spending responseably. it ends unnecessary and wasteful tax breaks for special interests, which i just named. it advances the buffett rule, ensuring that millionaires pay their fair share. i mention that because this is over and above, i mean i mention it because it's yet again another time where the republicans, at least on four occasions, shut down the opportunity to debate an alternative to what the republicans are proposing. this is on top of all that we are already trying -- already agreed to. many of nuss a bipartisan way voted for the budget control act which cut $1.2 trillion in spending. that was in addition to over $300 billion already cut last year. that is in addition to the president and members of congress saying we are prepared to make further cuts, waste, frud, abuse, and some things maybe are not wasteful, they have just not a priority anymore. we found a better way to do it. so maybe they're duplicative or obsolete but nonetheless we can't afford them any more. let's subject every dollar to harsh scrutiny. you have to subject spending to tax breaks. when you give tax breaks to big oil, as incentive

mr. van hollen's proposal is responsible, fair, and balanced. it cuts spending responseably. it ends unnecessary and wastefulax breaks fospecial interests, which i just named. it advances the buffettule, ensuring that millionaires pay their fair share. i mention that because this is over and above, i mean i mention it because it's yet again another time where the republicans, at least on four occasions, shut down the opportunity to debate an ternative to what the republicans are proposing. this is on top of all that we are already trying -- already agreed to. many of nuss a bipartisan way voted for the budget control act which cut $1.2 trillion in spending. that was in addition to over $300 billion already cut last year. that is in addition to the president and meers of congress saying we are prepared to make further cuts, waste, frud, abuse, and some things maybe are not wasteful, they have just not a priority anymore. we found a better way to do it. so maybe they're duplicative or obsolete but nonetheless we can't afford them any more. let's subject every dollar to harsh scrutiny. you have to subject spending to tax breaks. when you give tax breaks to big oil, as incentive to dr