Warren Buffett’s Covid prediction: No early relief for Berkshire Hathaway; these businesses already shut

The March-quarter operating earnings for Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which reported a 6 per cent increase to $5.87 billion, “have little meaning for forecasting the next year,” Buffet said at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on Saturday. Hathaway reported $49.7 billion loss in the first quarter of 2020 amid Covid-19 outbreak. “I don’t know the consequences of shutting down the U.S. economy…For some period, certainly during the balance of the year but maybe much longer…our operating earnings will be considerably less than if the virus hadn’t come along,” said Buffet.

While the Berkshire Hathaway’s three biggest ventures including the BNFS railroad, insurance, and the energy business have been in a “reasonably decent” situation but its other businesses (such as the home furnishing store chain Nebraska Furniture Mart and chocolate and candy maker See’s Candies) have been “effectively shut down,” he said, to contain the virus spread.