Many investors mark two events on their calendars as 'unmissable' every year. Both relate to legendary investor Warren Buffett and his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B).
The first is Buffett's annual letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. This is usually released in February and contains many insights into Buffett's thinking about the current investing climate, as well as the performance of Berkshire over the previous year. Our chief investment officer, Scott Phillips, took a deep dive into this year's letter back then, so make sure you have a read of that if you didn't catch it.
The second, though, is just around the corner. It is none other than Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting, which is always held in Buffett's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. This year's meeting has been scheduled for this Saturday, 3 May (Sunday our time).
These meetings typically involve Buffett fronting a literal arena of shareholders and taking questions from analysts and audience members for what is usually hours.
In years gone by, these meetings were helmed by Buffett and his longtime partner, Charlie Munger. However, since Munger's much-too-soon passing in 2023 at the age of 99, Buffett has been joined by other top Berkshire executives such as Ajit Jain and Buffett's named successor, Greg Abel. That will continue this year, with both Jain (not Cain) and Abel joining Buffett on stage.
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What do investors want to hear from Buffett in 2025?
Speaking as a fellow Berkshire shareholder, I can imagine that investors are looking to Buffett for reassurance and direction, now more than ever. That's certainly some of what I hope to hear from this meeting.
From an investing standpoint, we are arguably living in one of the most uncertain periods in living memory. Thanks to US President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies, economic uncertainty has been at its highest level since the COVID pandemic.
Trump's trade policies have sparked widespread concern over the global economy's health and how it will fare amid a virtual shutdown of trading between the US and China, the world's two largest economies. Trump has backed away from the severe 'reciprocal tariffs' he announced back on 'Liberation Day' on 2 April. However, he has maintained a punishing 145% tariff on all Chinese imports entering the United States. Not to mention an across-the-board tariff of 10% on other imports.
Although the flow-through effects of these tariffs have yet to occur, most economists predict they will have at least some negative effects on US economic growth, thanks to product scarcity and higher prices.
Perhaps more concerningly, Trump's policies also appear to have dented investor confidence in the US as the world's financial centre. Open discussions are taking place about the future of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency and the status of the US Treasury bond as the paramount 'risk-free' asset, which we dove into here.
An act of war on the certainty of America?
In the past, Buffett told investors that "for 240 years it's been a terrible mistake to bet against America, and now is no time to start". He also once said, "We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time".
However, Buffett has also previously been highly disparaging of the very tariffs that Trump has made the centrepiece of his economic agenda. As we covered back in March, Buffett has described implementing tariffs as "an act of war".
So what I, and I'd wager most other investors, are looking forward to at Berkshire's meeting on the weekend is hearing from Buffett about these two positions, and whether America remains the sure bet that Buffett has called it in the past. Let's see what the Oracle of Omaha has to say.
