Berkshire Hathaway's B shares gained more than 5% in the week ending November 6, while the S&P 500 gave back nearly 2.7% on the week, with the Nasdaq Composite down 3.4%, per CNBC. The gap widened on Saturday, when the Omaha conglomerate disclosed $9.6 billion of third-quarter buybacks, more than double the $4.5 billion it repurchased in the three months before.

Three record-high closes in five sessions did the rest.

A month earlier, Berkshire's B shares sat 13.6 points behind the S&P 500 on the year. After this week's run, Berkshire leads the benchmark by 5.8 points, per CNBC. That is a 19.4-point turn. It took about a month. The Nasdaq slid more than 10% below its recent high on Thursday, the line that marks a correction, before recovering part of the loss on Friday. Our Nasdaq 100 outlook from November 6 tracked the same slide from the index side.

The reversal in five dates

  • May 3, 2025: Warren Buffett tells the annual meeting he will step down as chief executive at the end of the year. The shares slide about 15% over the next three months.
  • Late October 2026: the stock erases the full post-announcement drop. It now trades 6% above the record closes from the Friday ahead of that May 2025 announcement, per CNBC.
  • Monday to Friday: three record-high closes as money leaves technology stocks. Class A ends Friday at $856,612 and Class B at $570.89, per Barron's, with both classes about 13.5% higher for the year. Market value sits near $1.22 trillion, per CNBC.
  • Thursday: the Nasdaq falls more than 10% below its recent high. Friday brings a partial recovery.
  • Saturday, November 7: third-quarter results land. Operating earnings reached $12.71 billion, 6% below the year-earlier $13.49 billion, per Reuters. Net earnings of $22.11 billion marked a 28% drop from a year earlier, per Reuters.

Why it matters

The rotation is the story, not the earnings. Operating profit fell, and Berkshire's own numbers show the quarter was softer, yet the shares rose because investors wanted what Berkshire sells: insurance, railroads, energy and consumer businesses with little direct exposure to artificial intelligence.

The fear driving the move is simple: the data-center spending spree by big technology companies may not pay for itself. That doubt hit the Nasdaq hardest. The index fell 3.4% on the week and sat in correction territory on Thursday. Bitcoin fell below $76,000 in the same AI-led selloff, which shows the retreat spread past stocks.

Berkshire is not clean of the AI trade, though. Its Alphabet stake stood at almost 106 million shares on June 30, worth $37.8 billion, per CNBC. Both Alphabet share classes have since fallen about 20%, cutting the stake to roughly $30.2 billion. Coca-Cola, at $38.3 billion, now ranks ahead of it in the portfolio.

Barron's Andrew Bary puts the Alphabet loss near $3 billion. CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert questioned the timing of the build, while Keefe, Bruyette and Woods analyst Meyer Shields frames the Alphabet bet as a patient, multi-year play on the technology, per CNBC. The 13F filing for the third quarter, due around mid-November, will reveal any change to the Alphabet holding.

The buyback ledger

Barron's calls the $9.6 billion figure probably the highest quarterly total on record for the company, and the pace behind it is the point. Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion in Q2, so the third-quarter figure is 2.1 times larger. Add the $4.8 billion bought earlier in 2026 and the nine-month total reaches about $14.4 billion, per Reuters. Barron's estimates Berkshire bought about $2 billion more in October, with the pace slowing once Class A passed $800,000 a share.

The read from Barron's is that chief executive Greg Abel and Buffett judged the stock cheap in the quarter.

The share count behind the math: 1,418,900 Class A equivalents were outstanding at September 30, per the company's release, and each buyback dollar shrinks that count. Operating profit per Class A share came in near $8,954, per Reuters. Cash was $365.5 billion at June 30, per CNBC, and the September 30 figure sits in the 10-Q the company posted with the release.

What to watch

  • Whether the 13F filing shows Berkshire cutting Alphabet after the stake's slide to about $30.2 billion.
  • US CPI lands November 10 and PPI follows November 13, the two prints that carry the most weight into the Federal Reserve's December 8-9 meeting. December hike odds stood near 70% as of November 6, per CoinDesk and CME FedWatch data.
  • Whether Friday's Nasdaq bounce holds or Thursday's correction low gets tested again next week.
  • Berkshire's next buyback disclosure with fourth-quarter results, and whether the October pace held after Class A passed $800,000.

Key points

  • Berkshire B shares rose over 5% on the week to November 6, against a near-2.7% S&P 500 loss and a 3.4% Nasdaq drop, per CNBC.
  • A month earlier Berkshire trailed the S&P 500 by 13.6 points for the year; it now leads by 5.8 points, per CNBC.
  • Third-quarter buybacks reached $9.6 billion, more than double the $4.5 billion of Q2; the nine-month total is about $14.4 billion, per Reuters.
  • Operating earnings reached $12.71 billion, 6% below the year-earlier figure; net earnings of $22.11 billion marked a 28% drop, per Reuters.
  • The Alphabet stake fell from $37.8 billion on June 30 to about $30.2 billion after a slide of about 20%, per CNBC.

MarketRadar take

Berkshire's week reads as a rotation trade, not an earnings beat. The operating numbers went backwards, the Alphabet bet is under water by roughly $7.6 billion since June, and the shares still set three records because the market paid for safety while technology corrected.

The $9.6 billion buyback is the company's own statement on its price. The October pace, near $2 billion by Barron's estimate, shows it kept buying as the stock climbed. The risk to the trade is the same as its fuel: if the AI selloff reverses and money flows back into technology, the defensive bid that carried Berkshire this week can fade as fast as it arrived.