Warren Buffett to stay as Berkshire chair, Greg Abel to become CEO at year-end
Berkshire Hathaway’s board on Sunday voted unanimously to make Greg Abel president and chief executive of the conglomerate come Jan. 1, 2026, while keeping Warren Buffett as chairman, sources told CNBC’s Becky Quick.
This comes after Buffett shocked Berkshire shareholders at the company’s annual meeting Saturday, saying in the last few minutes that he would recommend the board vote to make Abel CEO by year-end.
— John Melloy
Australia stocks fall after Prime Minister Albanese returns to power; Asian currencies rally
Australian stocks fell Monday after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese returned to power, while most Asian markets were closed for holidays.
Albanese is the country’s first prime minister to clinch a second consecutive term in 21 years, indicating Australians’ desire for policy continuity amid an uncertain global macroeconomic outlook.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 ended the day 0.97% lower at 8,157.80. This is a reversal from the sharp gains in its previous session, when the index hit its highest level since Feb. 27.
Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex plunged 1.23% in choppy trade to close at 20,532.99.
In India, the benchmark Nifty 50 added 0.45% while the BSE Sensex advanced 0.37%.
In India, the benchmark Nifty 50 added 0.47% to close at 24,461.15 while the BSE Sensex advanced 0.37% to 80,796.84.
Asia-Pacific currencies appreciated Monday, as the U.S. dollar weakened.
The offshore Chinese yuan strengthened marginally by 0.18% against the dollar to 7.1987, after hitting its strongest level since November 2024 earlier in the session.
The Taiwanese dollar continued to strengthen, appreciating 3.52% against the greenback to 29.622, after hitting its strongest level in nearly three years earlier in the day.
The Australian dollar appreciated by 0.68% against the greenback to trade at 0.6487. Similarly, the Singapore dollar strengthened by 0.73% to 1.2884 against the greenback after the ruling People’s Action Party secured a strong mandate.
The Japanese yen, which had weakened last week, appreciated 0.74% against the U.S. dollar to trade at 143.86, while the Indian rupee strengthened 0.22% against the greenback to 84.313.
— Amala Balakrishner
Last week’s earnings calls not giving much new info on tariffs, RBC says
Investors came into this earnings season looking for clues on how companies plan to adjust to higher U.S. tariffs and guidance on how it would impact them. RBC’s Lori Calvasina doesn’t think much new information was provided during last week’s deluge.
“On tariffs, we didn’t learn too much in the way of new information after the prior week’s avalanche of Industrials earnings,” wrote the firm’s head of U.S. equity strategy. “With a heavier dose of Tech companies taking the spotlight from the Industrials sector, the tariff discussions overall seemed a bit less front and center as well. Positive comments on tariffs tended to emphasize mitigation strategies, footprint adjustments either in the future or the past, pricing, USMCA compliance, and an ability to manage through.”
“More negative comments tended to center on fluidity of the policy backdrop, heightened uncertainty, and a difficulty in knowing where the policy will settle. We don’t have a great feel for the exact contours at the moment, but have been paying close attention to discussions of the timing of impacts for when mitigation strategies go into effect or stop having an impact,” Calvasina added.
More than 160 S&P 500 companies reported earnings last week, including megacaps Apple and Amazon.
— Fred Imbert
U.S. crude oil falls more than 4% after OPEC+ agrees to surge production again
U.S. crude oil futures fell more than 4% on Sunday, after OPEC+ agreed to surge production for a second month.
U.S. crude was down $2.49, or 4.27%, to $55.80 a barrel shortly after trading opened. Global benchmark Brent fell $2.39, or 3.9%, to $58.90 per barrel. Oil prices have fallen more than 20% this year.
The eight producers in the group, led by Saudi Arabia, agreed on Saturday to increase output by another 411,000 barrels per day in June. The decision comes a month after OPEC+ surprised the market by agreeing to surge production in May by the same amount.
— Spencer Kimball
Stock futures open little changed
U.S. stock futures were flat Sunday night.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 0.2%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures and and Nasdaq-100 futures ticked down 0.2% each.
— Hakyung Kim
