Lots of AAPL, and not much GOLD
| That's a lot of Apples After becoming the first U.S. company to ever top $2 trillion in market value on Wednesday, Apple continued to gain ahead of its 4-for-1 stock split a week from now, ending an already strong week with a 5.1% gain, just for today,
For the week, it rallied 8.2% to close at a new all-time high of $497.48 per share. Year-to-date it's up 69.4%.
Berkshire Hathaway's roughly 250 million shares represent just under 6% of Apple's outstanding shares.
But with a market value of $124.8 million as of today's close, they also now account for more than half the value of Berkshire's publicly disclosed U.S. stock holdings, as of June 30. That compares to just under a third of the total a mere six months ago.  Looking at it another way, Business Insider notes that if you add Berkshire's roughly $147 billion in cash to the value of its Apple shares, the total is more than half of its own $495 billion market value.
That makes the rest of Berkshire worth around $222 billion in the eyes of the market. By BI's calculation, the non-Apple-plus-cash portion of Berkshire generated more than $250 in revenue last year.
Its conclusion: "Berkshire's market cap doesn't seem to reflect its size, asset base, and financial health. The company is exposed to the pandemic through its numerous insurance, manufacturing, retail, industrial, and service businesses, but its valuation still seems disconnected from reality."
And/or Apple's valuation may also disconnected from reality.
Here's my golden rule Warren Buffett does not buy gold.
No matter what you may have read, seen, or heard, Warren Buffett did not change his mind after years of criticism and suddenly decide to make a "big bet" on gold, the precious metal itself, as an investment .. and he's not signaling that he's worried about the long-term health of the American economy.
Berkshire did reveal a week ago that during the second quarter it had purchased shares of Barrick Gold (GOLD) now worth around $613 million.
But that's not at all "big" by Berkshire standards (0.25% of the stock portfolio), it's a dividend-paying company that's producing something (even if that something is gold, which doesn't produce anything), and probably most importantly, its extremely unlikely Buffett himself made the decision to buy it.
Taking all the circumstances into account, especially the size of the stake, one of the portfolio managers -- Todd Combs or Ted Weschler -- almost certainly pulled the trigger. Buffett has said several times they operate independently, neither seeking nor getting his permission to make their moves.
Listen to Kelly Evans. She gets it.
BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET Some links may require a subscription
BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
  BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS - August 21, 2020
 Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. Holdings are as of June 30, 2020 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on August 14, 2020 and other filings, except for Bank of America, which is as of August 4, 2020.
The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)
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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
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