Finance

Employers are ordering workers back to the office. In recent weeks Dell, a hardware-maker, and JPMorgan Chase, a bank, have issued such decrees. They join a growing list that includes AT&T, Amazon and even the American government, where Elon Musk—who has called remote work “morally wrong” and its supporters “detached from reality”—has championed the shift. Bosses insist that mandates will boost productivity. Workers see them as a way to cut staff without mass firings. More

America’s president tempts many people to invoke the “madman theory” of diplomacy. In dealing with other countries, it helps if they think you are crazy. By making threats credible even if they would harm your own country, such a reputation will let you win games of brinkmanship. More

Valentine’s day is fast approaching. Inside sock drawers around the world, men (and a few women) will be hiding rings intended to convey their everlasting love. Since De Beers, the world’s leading diamond company, ingeniously announced that “diamonds are forever” in the 1940s, most engagement rings have included a diamond—and an expensive one at that. The average American will spend $5,000 on the band for their proposal. More

China has toughened its tone following the Trump administration’s opening salvo of trade tariffs.
“In the face of one-sided acts of bullying, [China] will definitely take necessary measures to firmly protect its own rights and interests,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce Spokesperson He Yongqian told reporters Thursday, according to a CNBC translation.
Beijing’s official commentary previously emphasized the willingness to negotiate.

Chinese and U.S. flags flutter near The Bund, before U.S. trade delegation meet their Chinese counterparts for talks in Shanghai, China July 30, 2019.
Aly Song | Reuters

BEIJING — China has toughened its tone following the Trump administration’s opening salvo of trade tariffs.
“In the face of one-sided acts of bullying, [China] will definitely take necessary measures to firmly protect its own rights and interests,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce Spokesperson He Yongqian told reporters Thursday, according to a CNBC translation.

She added that China would not provoke trade disputes and remained ready to resolve problems through discussions. Beijing’s official commentary previously emphasized the willingness to negotiate.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Lin Jian struck conveyed a similar mood on Wednesday.
“China firmly deplores and opposes the move of the U.S. to levy a 10 percent additional tariff on Chinese imports under the pretext of the fentanyl issue,” he said, according to an official English translation. “The measures China has taken are what’s needed for safeguarding our legitimate rights and interests.”
CNBC has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment.

The official remarks came just days after the U.S. announced 10% tariffs on Chinese goods, to which the Chinese side on Tuesday retaliated with its own duties of up to 15% on U.S. liquefied natural gas and select products, starting Feb. 10.

The U.S. also halted a so-called de minimis exemption, making it more expensive for Chinese e-commerce merchants to ship products directly to U.S. consumers.
Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He on Thursday urged the U.S. to create a “fair and predictable” environment for cross-border e-commerce. More

Huawei’s revenue exceeded 860 billion yuan ($118.27 billion) in 2024, Chairman Howard Liang said Wednesday, according to local state media.
That’s a 22% increase in revenue from 2023, and the fastest growth since a 32% increase in 2016, according to CNBC calculations of publicly released figures.
The gains came despite U.S. restrictions since 2019 on Huawei’s ability to access tech from American suppliers, from advanced 5G chips to Google’s Android operating system.

Huawei launched the Mate 70 series in an event in Shenzhen on November 26, 2024. The phones are the first capable of running Huawei’s new operating system called HarmonyOS NEXT.

BEIJING — Chinese telecommunications and smartphone giant Huawei continues to grow and take market share from Apple, despite U.S. restricting the company’s access to high-end technology.
Huawei’s revenue exceeded 860 billion yuan ($118.27 billion) in 2024, Chairman Howard Liang said Wednesday, according to local state media. Huawei did not comment when contacted by CNBC.

That’s a 22% jump in revenue from 2023, and the fastest growth since a 32% increase in 2016, according to CNBC calculations of publicly released figures. Huawei typically publishes its annual reports in March.
Liang, speaking at a local government conference, described Huawei’s consumer business as “returning to growth” and car solutions business as seeing “rapid development,” according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese-language report. He said Huawei’s information and communications technology business — which has been the largest segment by revenue — “remained stable.”
Since 2019, the U.S. has restricted Huawei’s ability to access technology from American suppliers, from advanced 5G chips to Google’s Android operating system.

Huawei’s revenue barely grew in 2020, and plunged by nearly 29% in 2021. Its consumer segment was hit hard, and even as revenue rose 17% year on year to 251.5 billion yuan in 2023, it was just over half of what the unit generated at its peak in 2020.
Huawei’s smartphone shipments in mainland China surged by 37% last year, climbing from fourth to second place by market share, while Apple fell to third place with a 17% drop, according to Canalys data. Vivo, known for its budget-priced devices, ranked first by market share in 2024, the data showed.

The telecommunications company started to make a comeback in the smartphone market in 2023 with the release of its Mate 60 Pro in China. Reviews indicated the device offers download speeds associated with 5G — thanks to an advanced semiconductor chip.
Just over a year later, Huawei launched the Mate 70 smartphone series that uses the company’s first fully self-developed operating system, HarmonyOS NEXT. More

When the 24 cabinet secretaries and top-level officials in Donald Trump’s new government assemble, they will form one of the wealthiest administrations in history. Whether they are the very wealthiest is impossible to say, since official disclosures top out at “over $50m”—a pittance for some of the assembled. But such disclosures are helpful in another way: they shine a light on the widely varying investment strategies of MAGA luminaries, and thus their widely varying outlooks on the world. More

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway once again scooped up shares of Sirius XM.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate purchased roughly 2.3 million shares for about $54 million in separate transactions Thursday through Monday, according to a filing with the SEC.

Warren Buffett walks the floor and meets with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders ahead of their annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 3, 2024.
David A. Grogan

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway once again scooped up shares of Sirius XM, boosting its stake in the satellite radio company to more than 35%.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate purchased roughly 2.3 million shares for about $54 million in separate transactions Thursday through Monday, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday evening. Berkshire now owns 35.4% of SiriusXM.

Berkshire first bought Liberty Media’s trackers in 2016 and started piling into SiriusXM’s tracking stocks in the beginning of 2024 in a likely merger arbitrage play. Billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Media completed its deal in early September to combine its tracking stocks with the rest of the radio company, as part of the reshuffling of his sprawling media empire. There was also a split-off of the MLB’s Atlanta Braves baseball team into a separate, publicly traded company, which Berkshire also owns shares in.

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Buffett has yet to mention the Sirius bet publicly, and it is not clear if the 94-year-old investor was behind it or if it is the work of his investing lieutenants, either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. Berkshire also purchased about five million shares in December.
SiriusXM had a rough 2024 with shares down a whopping 58% as the company grappled with subscriber losses and unfavorable demographic shifts. It is not a favored stock on Wall Street. Out of the 16 analysts covering Siri, only three gave it a buy rating, according to FactSet.
The stock is up about 5% in the new year.

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