Bill Gates, who sits on the Berkshire Hathaway board of directors, and who has Warren Buffett sitting on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation board of directors, has made a public statement about his ‘concerns’ for the coronavirus outbreak. We will look at what CNBC reported about Gate’s comment, and do so through the light of Buffett’s maxims, including “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”

Periodic readers of this business-nightly feature should note there are new tweaks to some of the standard portions of our evening market/investing report. Read carefully as some changes of the ‘standard text’ that follows before our left-right headlines and also in other features near the end of tonight’s reports.

Every evening our headlines that follow provide snapshots from two major media outlets on each side of the left-right news spectrum that reflect topics that influence or move investor sentiment. In moments on this business evening report, you can get ‘insights-at-a-glance.’

This report also sets the broader context for manufactured housing markets, in keeping with our mantra, “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” ©.

We begin with headlines left-of-center CNN followed by right-of-center Fox Business. We share closing tickers and other related data courtesy of Yahoo Finance, and more. 5 to 10 minutes reading this MHProNews market report every business night could save you 30 minutes to an hour of similar reading or fact-gathering elsewhere.

Perhaps more important, you will get insights about the industry from experts that care, but also dare to challenge the routine narrative that arguably keeps manufactured housing underperforming during an affordable housing crisis.

Media Consolidation at a Glance, 4 Infographics

Newsy, Peeling Back Media Bias, Manufactured Housing Sales, Investing, Politics, and You

 

Headlines from left-of-center CNN Business

• WORST WEEK SINCE 2008
• Stocks post biggest losses since the financial crisis amid coronavirus fears
• The S&P 500 is plunging at unprecedented speed
• Former Trump economist: Coronavirus could ‘absolutely’ spark global recession if not contained
• The Fed will cut rates in March, the market predicts
• $3.4 trillion has been wiped out of the stock market in a week
• The coronavirus has grounded Chinese tourists. The travel industry may not recover for years
• Smartphone sales are collapsing in China
• Cruise lines are Wall Street’s big losers this week. And there are few winners
• Buy shares of this mask supplier to survive the selloff, analysts say
• Analysis: How Trump and his Fox News allies are infecting the public trust
• A high school student created a fake 2020 candidate. Twitter verified it
• GM adding 1,200 jobs in two Michigan factories
• Elon Musk’s brother wants to transform farming
• Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is built to carry astronauts, but safety concerns loom
• ‘The Invisible Man’ could be a hit. Coronavirus fears might complicate that
• Stocks are up 30% in Trump’s presidency. At this point under Obama they were up 70%
• The spread of coronavirus couldn’t have come at a worse time for Corona beer
• This tiny electric car looks like a washing machine and costs just $6,600
• THE MUSIC INDUSTRY’S WHITE KNIGHT
• The music industry was left for dead a few years ago. Now it’s booming again
• How virtual reality is changing the live music experience
• Spotify buys Bill Simmons’ podcast empire
• How TikTok became a hitmaker for the music industry
• Spotify now has playlists for your pets
• MANAGING DOS AND DON’TS
• How managers can handle sickness and paranoia at the office
• Are you really cut out to be a manager?
• 6 ways to be a better and happier boss
• How to step back and delegate without losing control
• To climb the career ladder, you shouldn’t have to be a manager

Headlines from right-of-center Fox Business

• ECONOMY
• Fed’s Powell issues rare warning on coronavirus
• The virus, which causes a disease called COVID-19, has killed close to 3,000 people.
• Coronavirus causes worldwide event cancellations
• Fed teases rate cut as coronavirus fears pummel markets
• Virus fears pummel stocks as market sees worst week since ’08
• Inside Trump’s coronavirus committee
• WHO raises coronavirus risk alert to ‘very high’ amid growing outbreak
• Coronavirus and the US retail and travel industry – Here’s the big picture
• Coronavirus outbreak prompts colleges to cancel study abroad programs
• California city on edge, officials scramble after resident mysteriously contracts virus
• How to most effectively use Clorox wipes
• Oil’s coronavirus plunge pricing in ‘significant demand destruction’
• Is it still safe to visit coronavirus-ravaged Italy?
• US reports first drug shortage tied to coronavirus, warns it could get worse
• Disturbing claims surface about Mark Zuckerberg’s family, inner circle
• Apple CEO Tim Cook and Trump working towards a vital economic goal
• Coronavirus precautions shut down ‘Amazing Race’ production: Report
• Madoff customer payout nears $14B as dying swindler seeks freedom
• Why now may be a great time to invest in real estate
• Disneyland unveils new parade after two year plan
• Coronavirus hits Corona beer buzz
• Tom Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen on where she hopes to live
• The top 10 most overpaid CEOs, according to study
• Perks of royal life to slam shut on Harry and Meghan, leaving them unprotected
• ‘Into the Wild’ lures the unprepared to Alaska wilderness
• Premier Lacrosse League lands Ticketmaster as main sponsor
• Skiers warned not to use this toxic material before hitting the slopes
• People freaking out about 1981 novel that predicted a killer Wuhan virus
• Mike Bloomberg refuses to make this commitment if Sanders is Dem nominee
• Why prison coaches warn high-profile convicts not to sit on cellmates’ bunks
• Former WeWork employee files discrimination lawsuit
• 3G networks are becoming extinct
• Boosted by Bloomberg, 2020 ad spending topples $1B
• GM will add more than 1,200 jobs to Michigan assembly plants
• Coronavirus testing guidelines leaving potentially infected stranded in Japan: Report
• Prince Harry, Bon Jovi seen outside recording studio amid new partnership
• SEE PICS: ‘The Office’ star buys Frank Sinatra beach house for $10 million
• EXCLUSIVE: Apple CEO Tim Cook says China ‘getting coronavirus under control’
• Wayfair hunts profits after copying Amazon’s growth model
• State attorney general says Juul marketing probe is ‘wide open’
• SEE IT: Disney World jungle cruise boat sinks with passengers on board
• Chevy discontinues iconic, fan-favorite car that helped make brand
• Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez meet with French President Emmanuel Macron
• Popular singers, bands canceling shows amid growing coronavirus fears
• Need a tax season extension? How, and when, to file
• Coronavirus testing guidelines leaving potentially infected stranded in Japan: Report
• Coronavirus and the US retail and travel industry – Here’s the big picture
• CDC, FDA accelerate coronavirus treatment approvals: Kudlow
• Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg defends reputation, says she’s a ‘tough’ but ‘very fair’ boss

10 Market Indicator Closing Summaries – Yahoo Finance Closing Tickers on MHProNews…

Featured Focus – Where Business, Politics and Investing Can Meet

MHProNews is on record as editorially making the case for the breakup of the FAANG stocks, plus Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft. There may be others that merit antitrust action, but those for sure.

Applying Democratic, Republican & Barak Orbach’s Monopolization Logic to Affordable Housing Crisis Impacting Manufactured Home Industry

There is a reason to note that as we’ll juxtapose a comment from Bill Gates with some from Apple’s Tim Cook; the two statements in some ways are worlds apart.

 

“Apple CEO Tim Cook told FOX Business’ Susan Li Thursday that he is “optimistic” about China managing the coronavirus outbreak, which has slowed production at the tech giant’s suppliers,” said right-of-center Fox Business today.

 

“It feels to me that China is getting the coronavirus under control,” Cook said. “You look at the numbers, they’re coming down day by day by day. And so I’m very optimistic there.”

“When you look at the parts that are done in China, we have reopened factories, so the factories were able to work through the conditions to open, they’re reopening,” Cook said. “They’re also in ramp [up of factories to normal production mode]. So I think of this as sort of the third phase in getting back to normal, and we’re in phase three of the ramp mode.”

Now compare and contrast that with what left-of-center CNBC said. Note that per Berkshire’s most recent annual letter’s last page, see that entire document linked here, that among those on the Berkshire board is “Stephen B. Burke, Chairman of NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company.” They are the parent company of CNBC, which may help explain part of the reason that they often follow Buffett and Gates so closely.

Another Berkshire board member is “William H. Gates III, Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.” Note too that Buffett sits on the Gates foundation board.

Today, CNBC reported that:

• Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said the coronavirus is starting to behave like the “once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about.”
• Gates also pointed out COVID-19′s current predicted fatality rate is higher than that of the 1957 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated 66,000 people in the U.S.
• “I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume it will be until we know otherwise,” Gates said in an article.

Here is the specifics from the CNBC report:

• Billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said the coronavirus that has killed at least 2,859 people and infected more than 83,700 globally may be the “once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about.”
• “I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume it will be until we know otherwise,” Gates wrote in an article published Friday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
• Gates and his wife, Melinda, founded The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 to help improve world health and combat extreme poverty. The foundation announced Feb. 5 that it would donate $100 million to help find treatments and expand testing for the virus, particularly for poorer populations.
• According to Gates, COVID-19 poses a serious threat to the world because it’s far more deadly and contagious than many other deadly viruses.
• “First, it can kill healthy adults in addition to elderly people with existing health problems,” he wrote. “Second, Covid-19 is transmitted quite efficiently. The average infected person spreads the disease to two or three others — an exponential rate of increase.” World health leaders say the disease is spread by people who are mildly ill or don’t show any symptoms at all, making it harder to contain and more contagious than other types of viruses.

 

As this report is being written, a congressman who is also a medical doctor speaking to Fox Business said that coronavirus has yet to kill any youth, and that many who are dying are over 80, where the currently known mortality rate is some 15 percent. But overall, among those who contract the disease, the mortality rate is about .7 percent.

CNBC, by contrast, said this.

• The mortality rate is “many times more severe than typical seasonal influenza,” Gates said. The World Health Organization said the mortality rate of COVID-19 can differ, ranging from 0.7% to up to 4%, depending on the quality of the health-care system where it’s treated. Gates said that its current average estimated fatality rate of around 1% places it somewhere between the 1957 Asian flu pandemic (0.6%) that killed 1.1 million people and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic (2%) that killed 50 million around the world, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

MHProNews Analysis and Commentary

Clearly, on a humanity level, this spreading illness matters. But it also has an economic impact. Ponder the following quotes by Warren Buffett, in the light of the above.

Ponder this. What if beyond the politicization of this issue, if this is being viewed as a transfer of wealth ploy?

401K’s have soared in recent years, but they have plunged with the markets in recent days. If certain voices are knowingly hyping the severity to drive down stock prices – so that a few deep pockets could buy the dip – that could be a huge transfer of wealth that could take place in plain sight.

We won’t know for several weeks who is buying the dip. But we do know that the Federal Reserve has said that the economy is sound. President Donald J. Trump’s economic advisor Larry Kudlow said today that stocks look to be a bargain. As CNBC quoted Kudlow, “Stocks looks pretty cheap to me.”

Let’s mark the calendar and look back to see what happens. Naturally, our prayers are with all those impacted.

Related Reports:

Warren Buffett’s New Letter, Clayton Homes and Related Manufactured Housing Controversies

Weaponized Philanthropy, Castrated Associations and Manufactured Housing – Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett Connection

“Scorched Earth” Reply-Lesli Gooch, Tim Williams, and Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) Claims

Congresswoman Rips Frank Rolfe, Dave Reynolds, Havenpark for “Troubling,” “Predatory,” “Deceptive” Practices, Calls for Federal Investigations

“People are Afraid to Speak Out” – Extortion by Fear, Hobbs Act – Residents, Manufactured Housing Institute Members, Association Controversies

$500 Million Axne-Khanna Plan, Manufactured Housing Legislation Introduced, But Manufactured Housing Institute Fails to Tell Members?

Manufactured Home Community-Connected Professional Sounds Alarm, Impact Communities, Frank Rolfe, Dave Reynolds, and Looming Rent Control

Housing Affordability Challenges, Presidential Economic Report and Manufactured Home Opportunities

Attorney General Tom Miller Slams “Predatory” Manufactured Home Community Operators, plus Manufactured Housing Investing, Stock Updates

Manufactured Housing Industry Investments Connected Closing Equities Tickers
Some of these firms invest in manufactured housing, or are otherwise connected, but may do other forms of investing or business activities too.

• • • • • NOTE: The chart below includes the Canadian stock, ECN, which purchased Triad Financial Services, a manufactured home industry lender
        • NOTE: Drew changed its name and trading symbol at the end of 2016 to Lippert (LCII).

 

Winter 2020…
Berkshire Hathaway is the parent company to Clayton Homes, 21^st Mortgage, Vanderbilt Mortgage and other factory built housing industry suppliers.
· LCI Industries, Patrick, UFPI, and LP each are suppliers to the manufactured housing industry, among others.
· AMG, CG, and TAVFX have investments in manufactured housing related businesses. For insights from third-parties and clients about our publisher, click here.
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