Don't hate the player... hate the benchmark. Shares of Warren Buffett's legendary holding company Berkshire Hathaway rose 11% in 2019 — not bad, right? Until you compare that with the S&P 500, which jumped 31.5% last year. That means that if you'd invested in an S&P 500-tracking ETF for all of 2019, you would've made a 31.5% return (that's almost triple the return of Buffett's baby). But Warren reminded us as always in his annual letter to shareholders (which came out Saturday) that Berkshire has performed twice as well as the S&P 500 historically since 1965.
Secret goes private... Victoria's Secret was sold off by struggling parent L Brands. And get this: the lingerie chain is only worth $1.1B as a private company. Vicky hasn't adapted well to an era of inclusivity and bralettes — slowing sales and bad PR dropped L Brands' value by 75% over 5 years. With the sale of VS (and its PINK brand), all L has left is a healthy-ish Bath & Body Works brand. Scented shower gel may help clean the financial woes.