Berkshire underperforms the market for second straight year

The S&P 500's 2020 gain easily beats a modest advance for Berkshire Hathaway's stock price.

VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE THU, DEC 31, 2020 WARREN BUFFETT WATCH S&P outperforms Berkshire for second straight year The benchmark S&P 500 stock index, with dividends reinvested, jumped by 17.6% this year, compared to a 2.4% increase for Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares. (Without dividends, the S&P is up 16.3%.)   The 15.2 gap in percentage points is smaller than last year's 20.5 deficit, but otherwise larger than any year since 2009.     Berkshire's 2020 in Buffett Watch links January Buffett sells Berkshire's newspaper business in rare admission of defeat February: Crypto-skeptic Buffett gets his first bitcoin at a long-delayed meal Berkshire adds Kroger and Biogen, cuts back on Goldman and Wells Buffett's three-hour live interview on "Squawk Box" March: Buffett's "difficult" but "obvious" annual meeting decision April: Munger explains why Berkshire's not doing big deals right now May: At annual meeting, Buffett admits mistake on airline stocks and sells Annual meeting highlights: Bullish on America, bearish on airlines Buffett dumps almost entire Goldman Sachs stake June: Buffett's Apple bet hits jackpot but OXY is another story July: Berkshire's bullish $10B gas deal August: Bank of America stock buys hit $2 billion Berkshire sells $7 billion of financial stocks September: Snowflake win may be sign of good things to come at Berkshire October: Berkshire pays fine over subsidiary's secret sales to Iran November: In with health care, out with banks December: COVID cancels "Woodstock for Capitalists" ... again Who stole Warren Buffett? That's what Gorat's Steak House in Omaha, where the real Buffett sometimes dines, is asking about the cardboard photo version of Buffett that, until recently, stood inside the restaurant.   As NBC affiliate WOWT-TV reports, Gorat's is asking for help finding the "two delinquents" who "kidnapped" the cutout that "for years ... has greeted patrons ... posed for photos with fans, and watched over his favorite steakhouse."   It even posted security camera video of the incident.   So far as we know, cardboard Buffett is still missing.     BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET Some links may require a subscription Barron's: Berkshire Hathaway Is One of Barron's Top Stock Picks for the New Year. Here's Why. Investor's Business Daily: Warren Buffett's Top 12 Stocks This Year Aren't All Obvious BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH         BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS - Dec 31, 2020     Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly-traded U.S. stocks by market value, based on today's closing prices.   Holdings are as of September 30, 2020 as reported in Berkshire Hathaway and New England Asset Management's 13F filings on November 16, 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.)   If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.   Happy New Year!     -- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch   Unsubscribe Manage Newsletters Terms of Service   Digital Products Feedback Privacy Policy   © 2020 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. A property of NBCUniversal. 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by THOMSON REUTERS