Moody's cut its rating on Warren Buffett's holding company two notches,

Buffett's Berkshire loses top rating
Moody's cut its rating on Warren Buffett's holding company two notches, saying investment losses were hurting the company's ability to meet its funding needs.

(Source CNN Money)
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Moody's Investors Service cut its credit ratings on Berkshire Hathaway Inc. from Aaa, the top rating, saying the recession and investment losses at insurance operations of investor Warren Buffett's holding company reduced its ability to support funding needs.
Wednesday's cut to Berkshire's rating means Moody's no longer has a Aaa rating on any company with significant financial-services operations.
Moody's cut the ratings on Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire (BRK-A) to Aa2, the third-highest investment grade, and cut to Aa1, the second-highest, its ratings on Berkshire's reinsurance subsidiary National Indemnity Co and bond insurance arm Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp.
The downgrades come more than a month after Berkshire reported a 62% drop in profit, the worst year since Buffett took over 44 years ago. The outlook for all the ratings is stable, Moody's said, indicating an additional rating change is not anticipated over the next 12 to 18 months.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/08/news/companies/berkshire_moodys_downgrade.reut/index.htm?postversion=2009040908

Update April 8, 21.00 CET

Berkshire's Class A shares were up $2,330, or 2.6 percent, at $91,290 in afternoon trading after earlier rising to $92,880, their highest since January 16, Reuters data show.
Wells Fargo said on Thursday it expects quarterly profit excluding preferred stock dividends of 55 cents per share, more than twice what analysts expected.
The San Francisco-based bank said it benefited from a surge in mortgage lending, lower credit losses than analysts feared, and strong results from newly-acquired Wachovia Corp.
As of December 31, Berkshire said it held 304.4 million Wells Fargo shares, for a 7.2 percent stake.
Wells Fargo shares rose as much as 32.6 percent on Thursday, which would give Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire an instant paper profit from that stake of close to $1.5 billion.