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☆ Warren Buffett, in annual letter, stays upbeat and preaches patience
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

In his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders, the 92-year-old Buffett urged investors to focus on the big picture over the long term, rather than higher inflation and other factors that in 2022 dampened stock prices, though not Berkshire's. And I doubt very much that any reader of this letter will have a different experience in the future." "Buffett is very humble in assessing his own investment prowess, and unnecessarily so," said Thomas Russo, a partner at Gardner Russo & Quinn and longtime Berkshire investors. It also became a big seller of stocks including Taiwanese semiconductor maker TSMC (2330.TW) late in the year, while stepping up repurchases of its own stock. Buffett also urged investors not to dwell on near-term market conditions - he said Berkshire offers "modest protection from runaway inflation, but this attribute is far from perfect."

☆ One year of war in Europe: How the dollar, energy and food prices swirled
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Russia's invasion of Ukraine has disrupted economies and markets around the world, from energy and food prices to European banks, emerging market stocks and the Russian currency. Below are five charts that show how Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two has shaped global financial markets in the last 12 months. But when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine in late February, European natural gas prices rocketed by almost 400% in two weeks. Energy prices soared, bringing the threat of blackouts, recession and a worrying switch back to dirtier sources of fuel. Food price pressures are easing, but that does little to soften the blow for many developing nations, where food and energy prices make up a larger share of spending.

☆ Nepo babies like Myles O'Neal and Ella Bleu Travolta do a plant-based take on their parents' "Got Milk?" ads
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Plant-based brand Silk has a new ad campaign that features nepo babies sporting milk mustaches. The ads are aimed at "the next generation of milk drinkers and plant-based enthusiasts," Silk said. Those ads featured celebrities from Whoopi Goldberg to Frankie Muniz donning milk on their upper lip, presumably after taking a sip from a glass. David Beckham, Kelly Preston, Christie Brinkley, and Shaquille O'Neal all appeared in "Got Milk?" US consumers bought $2.6 billion worth of the alternatives to cow's milk in 2021, according to the Plant Based Foods Association.

☆ Economists urge China to think 'beyond GDP' to head off climate risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( David Stanway | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SINGAPORE, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A team of influential economists has urged China to adopt a new development model based on "wellbeing" rather than GDP growth in order to fulfil its 2060 net-zero emissions goals and head off the mounting threats of climate change. The old development model drove rapid growth in China over the last four decades, but is putting the world at "grave risk", the report said. China began experimenting with "green GDP" in 2005 as concerns mounted about the environmental damage done by rapid industrialisation. A 2006 government report concluded that environmental losses amounted to 3% of total GDP, but critics believed the actual figure was much higher. China is home to 16 of the 20 global regions most vulnerable to climate change, data showed on Monday.

☆ FDA says sugary cereal and white bread no longer 'healthy'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Those changes mean that food companies could no longer market white bread as well as sugary cereals and yogurt as "healthy," according to the FDA. Sources of omega-3 fatty acids such as fish, for example, would get the "healthy" designation because of potential health benefits from that type of fat. The revised definition of "healthy" isn't a requirement for food companies, according to the FDA. Even so, many food companies closely follow nonbinding FDA guidelines. Another set of proposed FDA guidelines for plant-based milks, for example, drew ire from the dairy industry this week.

☆ You can call almond milk 'milk,' but there's a catch, the FDA says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Almond milk and other plant-based drinks can be labeled "milk," the Food and Drug Administration said. But if they do, they should explain the nutritional differences between their plant-based milk and cow's milk, the FDA said. It also recommends that plant-based milk makers include a statement on their label clarifying the differences between their product and cow's milk. "We applaud FDA's recognition that consumers understand the difference between plant-based milk and cow's milk and that shoppers choose to purchase plant-based milk specifically because it is not cow's milk," Madeline Cohen, senior regulatory attorney at the Good Food Institute, which advocates for plant-based brands, said in a statement. The National Milk Producers Federation, which represents the US animal milk industry, said the proposed guidance would allow plant-based companies "to continue inappropriately using dairy terminology."

☆ Danone eyes better margins in 2023, Q4 sales top estimates
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Dominique Vidalon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Danone (DANO.PA) like-for-like quarterly sales growth topped estimates on Wednesday on the back of higher prices amid soaring raw materials and energy costs which still weighed down its full-year operating margin. The world's largest yoghurt maker's 2023 forecast was in line with its mid-term like-for-like sales growth target of 3% to 5%, with a moderate improvement in recurring operating margin. The owner of Activia yoghurt and Evian bottled water reported like-for-like sales growth of 7.8% for 2022, near the top end of its 7% to 8% sales growth forecast. Danone reported fourth-quarter sales growth of 7%, beating market expectations of 6.2%, helped by growth across Essential Dairy and Plant-based, Specialised Nutrition and Waters segments. "Building on 2022 momentum, we are entering 2023 with renewed ambition and confidence in our strategy," CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique said in a statement.

☆ Warren Buffett is missing out on this year’s market comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But the Oracle of Omaha has missed out on this year’s stock market rally. Buffett, in fact, has promoted that idea to investors many times, arguing that most individual stock pickers will not be able to beat the market. And to his credit, that usually pays dividends: Berkshire stock was up 3% last year in a down market. “High rates of inflation create a tax on capital that makes much corporate investment unwise,” Buffett said in his 1980 shareholder letter to Berkshire investors. Investors will get several more clues about consumer spending this week when several top retailers report earnings.

☆ Nestlé says food prices will rise further this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Food, including ice cream, will see significant price increases in 2023, CEO Alan Jope said on the same call. Unilever said price increases caused sales volumes to decline by 2.1% in 2022. Heineken, meanwhile, said it expected to sell less beer in Europe this year because of “steep” price increases related to energy costs. At the time, Tesco (TSCDF) described the company’s price increases as “unjustifiable.” Once the products were restored, prices were unchanged on Heinz’s most popular lines. Gabby Jones/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesTesco has also “fallen out with other suppliers” over price increases, its chairman John Allen recently told the BBC.

"Consumers are looking for convenient, filling, and nutritious meals, while at the same time paying more attention to the price tag," Kraft's chief executive Miguel Patricio said, adding the company would halt fresh price hikes in North America, Europe, Latin America and most of Asia. Retailers have also been increasingly opposing food manufacturers' price hikes. Last year, Kraft briefly stopped supplying some products to Tesco (TSCO.L) due to pricing disagreements with the British supermarket chain. It said average selling prices rose 15.2 percentage points in the fourth quarter, while sales volumes declined 4.8 percentage points. Net sales rose 10% to $7.38 billion, beating the estimate of $7.27 billion.

☆ As Home Sales Slow, Realtors Go Back to Their Other Jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Anne Marie Chaker | Nicole Friedman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Dave Parker has quit trying to sell houses. Last spring, the 46-year-old father of three joined a real-estate brokerage in Silver Spring, Md., hoping to make money on the booming housing market. Less than a year later, mortgage rates have climbed and many would-be clients have backed out. Mr. Parker recently took on more hours at a Giant Food supermarket where he already worked part time as a dairy manager.

☆ I asked ChatGPT about its carbon footprint, and for now, it's a mystery
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

ChatGPT said its carbon footprint depended on the energy use of its computers and servers. Concerns about ChatGPT's carbon footprint, which is likely small at the moment, could rise as more people turn to it for day-to-day search. For now, a lot of mystery surrounds the carbon footprint of AI, including ChatGPT. I asked the chatbot what its carbon footprint was, and its answer felt, well, human: It depends. "As an AI language model developed by OpenAI, I do not have a physical body or personal actions that generate carbon emissions," ChatGPT wrote.

☆ Eggs are 70% more expensive than they were a year ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

In January, egg prices rose 8.5% compared to the month before, according to inflation data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Tuesday. In the wholesale market, egg prices hit a record peak in December and have been steadily falling since then. Julia Weeks/APAnd compared to other grocery items, egg prices rose most dramatically. Grocery prices in JanuaryIn the month of January, grocery prices went up 0.4% compared to December, adjusting for seasonal swings. Ham prices jumped 3%, citrus fruit jumped 2.8% and packaged cookies got 2.5% more expensive.

☆ 10 stocks that fit Warren Buffett's takeover criteria
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Warren Buffett is fresh off an active year full of deal-making and stock purchases. Berkshire agreed to buy insurance company Alleghany for $11.6 billion, Buffett's biggest deal since 2016. Buffett favors companies with historically low stock prices when compared with earnings, and rock solid cash flows. Until 2017, Buffett had always revealed his acquisition criteria every year in his annual letters to Berkshire shareholders. Monster Beverage checks all the boxes in Buffett's acquisition criteria.

☆ New U.S. agriculture trade chief seeks to diversify buyers beyond China
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - U.S. chief agricultural trade negotiator Doug McKalip wants China to keep striving to meet U.S. farm goods purchase commitments under the 2020 "Phase 1" trade deal, but told Reuters that he also is pushing to diversify exports beyond the biggest U.S. grain customer. "I think for the American farmer, it's important to have a diverse set of buyers out there," he said. China will remain an important top customer, he said, a day after U.S. Census Bureau trade data showed China reached a record $40.85 billion - nearly a fifth of global U.S. farm exports that also reached a record $213 billion. "We'd certainly like to see their purchases be closer to the top numbers that they agreed to," McKalip said of China. Southeast Asia represents an important region to expand U.S. farm exports, and McKalip said he intends to work on reducing trade barriers through the Biden administration's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework negotiations.

☆ Unilever fourth-quarter sales boosted by higher prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Unilever Plc (ULVR.L) on Thursday reported quarterly underlying sales growth above expectations, helped by higher prices for its detergents, soaps and packaged food. The packaged goods industry has raised prices sharply over the past year to cope with surging costs of everything from cocoa and sunflower oil to wheat. "In the first half, underlying price growth will remain high, and volume growth will be negative," Unilever said in a statement. "Volume will improve as price growth softens, but it is too early to say whether volume will turn positive in the second half." Underlying sales at Unilever rose 9.2% in the fourth quarter, beating company-provided analyst estimate of a 8.2% increase.

☆ 'The grass does not grow': In Chile's far south, the worst drought in 50 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] A view of parched earth as a wetland is drying up, in Punta Arenas, Chile February 2, 2023. In the far south city of Punta Arenas, that has led to a water emergency declared last year. "In 2022 Punta Arenas had its driest year in 52 years," said Nicolas Butorovic, a climatologist from the regional University of Magallanes. "The wind picks up and dries everything and the grass does not grow, that is the drama we're facing," said Hector Garay, a livestock farmer in the region. "If there is no irrigation water, water from rain, the grass does not grow.

☆ Unilever says prices hikes will continue into this year, easing in H2
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Bottles of Dove body wash, produced by Unilever Plc, at an Iceland Foods Ltd. supermarket in Christchurch, UK, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Unilever Plc said on Thursday it would continue to raise prices for its detergents, soaps and packaged food to offset rising input costs, and ease up those hikes in the second half of 2023. The packaged goods industry has hiked up prices over the past year to cope with surging costs of everything from cocoa and sunflower oil to wheat. The industry had already been battling Covid-era supply chain issues and raw material expenses when Russia invaded Ukraine, further boosting prices of energy and other commodities. Underlying sales at Unilever rose 9.2% in the fourth quarter, beating a company-provided analyst estimate of an 8.2% increase.

The U.S. food index, including meals eaten at home and in cafes and restaurants, increased 10.4% for the year ended in December. RETAILER PUSHBACKConsumer goods manufacturers - will continue to raise prices until they recover their profitability, said Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne. In December, the CEO of Walmart (WMT.N), the world's biggest retailer, warned that some "packaged goods suppliers are still pointing us towards more inflation next year on top of the mid-double digits this year". Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said last month he was hopeful inflation would peak by mid-2023 and then start to ebb. Barclays analyst Warren Ackerman said although food commodity prices on average were down 20% from March peaks, it will take time for this to reflect in companies' costs.

☆ U.S. farm incomes seen to fall in 2023, after hitting record highs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( P.J. Huffstutter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Net farm income - which is a broad measure of profits in the agricultural economy, according to the agency - is forecast to reach $136.9 billion in 2023 in nominal dollars, down nearly 16% from a year earlier. The agency said the drop follows 2022 net farm income hitting a high of $162.7 billion, in nominal dollars, and $140.9 billion in 2021. When adjusted for inflation, net farm income is forecast to fall $30.5 billion, or 18.2%, in 2023 compared with a year earlier. Still, the USDA noted, this year's net farm income is expected to be nearly 27% above its 20-year average, in inflation-adjusted dollars. While farm sector debt is forecast to continue to increase, so is farm equity, mostly due to rising land and equipment values, said USDA Economic Research Service economist Carrie Litkowski.

☆ Chipotle Mexican Grill misses expectations for earnings, revenue and same-store sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Chipotle Mexican Grill on Tuesday reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue, signaling that its price hikes may finally be alienating customers. Excluding certain legal expenses, corporate restructuring costs and other items, Chipotle earned $8.29 per share. The company's same-store sales rose just 5.6%, falling short of StreetAccount estimates of 6.9% and coming in weaker than Chipotle's own forecast from late October. The company said it's projecting same-store sales growth in the high-single digits for the first quarter of 2023, based on January same-store sales growth in the low double-digits. Wall Street was anticipating first-quarter same-store sales of 6.7%, according to StreetAccount estimates.

☆ Meet the typical Whole Foods shopper, a highly educated West Coast millennial woman earning $80,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Whole Foods' average shopper is a West Coast woman who is 29 years old and earning $80,000 per year. Numerator found that Whole Foods' typical shopper is a West Coast millennial woman between 25 and 34 years old. About 5% of the typical shopper's spending takes place at Whole Foods — about half of what she spends on Amazon. Whole Foods shoppers also tend to choose the store's in-house 365 brand, as well as Organic Valley dairy products and Applegate meats. Across all retailers, Whole Foods shoppers buy a lot more kombucha than the typical US shopper.

☆ Small California town wonders if restored floodplain prevented disaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

[1/5] An aerial view shows the town of Grayson near floodwaters from the San Joaquin River in Grayson, California, U.S., January 25, 2023. Advocates for floodplain restoration say it can help solve California's dual dangers of flooding and drought, replenishing groundwater for future drought relief while protecting towns from the catastrophic flooding that scientists predict will come with climate change. One of the volunteers was David Guzman, who works in an almond processing plant and lives right up against a slough of the San Joaquin River. But some experts say floodplain restoration can help spare adjacent towns, and they envision a day when a proliferation of projects will prevent wider flooding throughout the state. The valley lies west of the north-south Sierra Nevada mountain range and includes the smaller San Joaquin Valley.

☆ 6 science-backed ways to stave off dementia and preserve your memory as you age
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A healthy diet, regular exercise, and an active social life can keep your memory stronger. Those who had more "healthy lifestyle factors" had slower memory decline than those who did not. Researchers looked at six factors: a healthy diet, regular exercise, regular social contact, cognitive activities, and abstaining from both smoking and alcohol. This suggests that despite having a higher risk for memory loss, a healthy lifestyle can have a positive effect on slowing memory decline, the authors of the report said. They added that there needs to be further research on the link between healthy habits and the slowing of memory loss.

☆ An 81-year-old brain doctor's 7 'hard rules' for keeping your memory 'sharp as a whip'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Richard Restak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Neglecting your brain health can make you vulnerable to degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. As a neuroscientist, I've spent decades guiding patients with memory problems through brain-enhancing habits and exercises — many of which I practice, too. Here are seven brain rules I follow to keep my memory sharp as a whip:1. Eat brain foods. Get in the habit of converting anything which you find hard to remember into a wild, bizarre or otherwise attention grabbing image.

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