[Platinum Insights] (5.8.23)

Good morning.  

Market futures are steady this morning as investors await the US inflation report on Wednesday for more insights into price pressures and the monetary policy outlook. Regional banks saw gains in pre-market trading, with shares of PacWest rising by 34% after the lender reduced its quarterly dividend. Meanwhile, while the earnings season is nearing its end, but companies such as Disney and Paypal are still due to report quarterly results this week.  

Berkshire Hathaway wrapped up its annual meeting in Omaha on Saturday with tens of thousands of shareholders in attendance. Berkshire Hathaway’s compounded annual gain was 19.8% from 1965 through the end of last year, compared with 9.9% for the S&P 500. That’s an overall total return of 3,787,464% vs. 24,708% for the benchmark.  Buffett said he was a net seller of stocks in the first quarter. Berkshire sold $13.2 billion worth of stocks, buying only $2.8 billion, according to its earnings report.  

WTI crude futures climbed above $73 per barrel. Gold prices rose above $2,020 an ounce while the yield on the US 10-year Treasury note is currently around 3.47%.  

Goldman Sachs says it expects to see 60.2% of respondents reporting a tightening in lending standards, which the bank says is “a level tighter than the dot-com crisis but less extreme than during the financial crisis or the height of the pandemic”.  

President Joe Biden and top Republicans and Democrats from Congress are set to sit down this week to try to resolve a three-month standoff over the $31.4 trillion U.S. debt ceiling and avoid a crippling default before the end of May.