New York, Jan 31, 2026, 10:07 (ET) — The market has closed.
- BRK.B closed Friday roughly 0.9% higher, defying the wider slide across U.S. indexes.
- Traders are grappling with hotter wholesale inflation numbers and lingering questions about who will lead the Fed next.
- Monday’s open and the February 6 U.S. jobs report stand out as the next key catalysts.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s Class B shares (BRK.B) climbed 0.9% to close at $480.53 on Friday, beating the broader market. Class A shares rose about 1%, finishing at $722,500. Around 5.1 million Class B shares changed hands.
U.S. markets are closed for the weekend, yet positioning won’t remain static for much longer. When markets open Monday, investors will face ongoing rate debates alongside a packed earnings schedule.
Berkshire tends to be the go-to when investors crave stability, and Friday’s trading fit that mold. It also serves as a gauge for sentiment toward “real economy” companies and large sums of investable capital.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.43% on Friday, while the Nasdaq lost 0.94% and the Dow slipped 0.36%. Investors wrestled with earnings reports and took a cautious stance after Donald Trump named Kevin Warsh as his Fed chair choice. Materials stocks led the decline, but consumer staples—a defensive sector—managed gains.
Inflation data pushed markets again. The producer price index (PPI), measuring wholesale inflation, climbed 0.5% in December, outpacing expectations. This came after the Fed kept rates steady at 3.50%–3.75% this week. Fed Chair Jerome Powell blamed tariffs for the surge, predicting their impact will peak around midyear. Carl Weinberg of High Frequency Economics said, “This report validates the pivot of the Fed away from labor market risks back toward price stability.” Reuters
For Berkshire holders, here’s the bottom line: the company generates investment income from insurance cash and holds a massive stock portfolio that’s valued against the market. When expectations for rates shift, so do the forecasts for that income stream.
The January U.S. jobs report lands on Feb. 6, with payroll growth expected to come in at 64,000. The CPI inflation numbers follow a week later. Investors will also digest earnings from Alphabet and Amazon next week. Meanwhile, markets are betting the Fed will hold off on any rate cuts until June. “We haven’t really gotten a lot of clean looks at the state of the labor market and inflation,” said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede. Reuters
That sets the stage for a stock behaving more like a safe haven than a high-flier lately. It isn’t reacting to company news—it’s driven by the overall market sentiment.
Big Tech took a hit Thursday, with Microsoft dropping 10% after its cloud revenue came up short of expectations, raising questions about the payoff from heavy AI investments. “Investors are trying to reduce exposure to stocks and play it safe,” said John Praveen, managing director and co-CIO at Paleo Leon. Reuters
Since Greg Abel took the helm on Jan. 1, Berkshire has remained a go-to defensive stock for many, with Warren Buffett still serving as chairman. As of Sept. 30, the company sat on $381.7 billion in cash and equivalents, having pared back holdings in longtime favorites like Apple and Bank of America.
Berkshire’s upcoming earnings report later this quarter will be the next key moment for investors, who will closely watch for changes in capital deployment. Shareholders tend to focus heavily on buybacks, underwriting results, and comments about the equity portfolio, especially when markets are unsettled.
But the defensive tag works both ways. On Thursday, jitters about a possible U.S. strike on Iran and the threat of another government shutdown shook markets. Meanwhile, concerns about an AI bubble weighed on tech shares, dragging the Nasdaq and S&P 500 down.
Monday’s reopening will serve as a quick test of Berkshire’s relative strength. Much depends on the Feb. 6 jobs report and if it supports the market’s expectation that the Fed will hold steady until summer.
