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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IngotWeTrust who wrote (30013)	3/14/1999 3:33:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116764

Buffett offers few clues on silver Letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders issued By Jeffry Bartash and Tom Bemis, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 12:05 PM ET Mar 13, 1999 Futures Movers OMAHA, Neb. (CBS.MW) -- Living up to his nickname as the "Oracle of Omaha," Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffett offered only cryptic comments to investors Saturday about his stake in silver in his much-awaited annual letter to shareholders. The letter, posted on the Internet Saturday morning, discussed the overall performance of Buffett's holding company, which has interests in jewelers, a restaurant chain and insurance companies, including discounter Geico Insurance. Last year, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) announced that it had acquired 129.7 million ounces of silver, or about 16 percent of the world's annual silver output. At the time, the company said it made the purchases on the expectation that demand would continue to outstrip supply, leading to an increase in prices. Saturday, however, Buffett said he had disclosed the holding only because "questions about our silver position that we had received from regulatory authorities led us to believe that they wished us to publicly acknowledge this investment." Buffett went on to say "unless we again take a position that is particularly large -- we will not post you as to what we are doing in respect to any specific holding of an unconventional sort. We can report, however, that we have eliminated certain of the positions discussed last year and added certain others." In addition to its "non-traditional" silver holdings, Berkshire Hathaway held derivative contracts for 14.0 million barrels of oil and $4.6 billion, at amortized cost, of long-term zero-coupon bonds according to last year's letter to investors. Silver gains Silver (SI=H9) rose 12 percent in 1998. It's expected to climb this year as well, according to a report from CPM Group. See Thom Calandra's StockWatch. Silver fell 2.8 cents to $5.32 an ounce Friday. Analysts who follow Buffett say he usually doesn't move in and out of markets rapidly and tends to hold his investments for the long term. Nevertheless, his silver stake has fueled frequent rumors in the silver market about whether he's been buying or selling. At the time that Berkshire Hathaway announced its silver position in February 1998, the company said it had "no present plans for purchase or sale of silver." The company's silver holdings made up less than 2 percent of its investment portfolio at the time, according to a company press release. Buffett's letter to shareholders is available on the company's own Web site. The letter, known for its humor, quirkiness and literary quality, is gleaned for clues on Buffett's thoughts about investing. Earnings report Earlier this week, Berkshire Hathaway reported that profits for 1998 surged 50 percent to $2.8 billion from $1.9 billion a year earlier, bolstered by realized investment gains. Such gains jumped to $1.6 billion from $704 million. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which have never split, rose 4,900 to 80,300 Friday. The B shares (BRK.B), created several years ago to give investors an easier way to buy in to the company, rose 139 to 2642 The company's annual meeting is slated for May 3. Jeffry Bartash is a reporter and Tom Bemis is an assistant news editor for CBS MarketWatch. cbs.marketwatch.com