Even the stock god still suffered heavy losses in the collapse of U. S. stocks in the second quarter.

On Saturday, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reported revenue of $76.18 billion in the second quarter of this year, up 10.2% from $69.114 billion in the same period last year.

Second-quarter operating profit was $9.28 billion, up 38.7% from $6.69 billion in the same period last year. The scope of this profit covers the insurance, railway and utility businesses owned by the group, excluding investment gains and losses.

It is worth noting that Berkshire Hathaway posted a net loss of $43.755 billion attributable to shareholders in the second quarter, compared with a net profit of $28.094 billion in the same period last year. The biggest drag was that its portfolio lost $53 billion in the market slump.

The collapse in global financial markets in the second quarter put heavy pressure on its equity portfolio, which fell to $328 billion from $391 billion at the end of March. The paper loss of $53 billion far exceeds the size of the loss last quarter.

Berkshire's investment loss in the first half of this year was $54.6 billion, compared with an investment income of $21.4 billion in the second quarter of 2021 and $26.1 billion in the first half of that year.

In a press release, Berkshire Hathaway again called on investors to pay less attention to the quarterly fluctuations of its equity investments:

Any given quarterly investment income (loss) amount is usually meaningless, and the net earnings per share data provided can be highly misleading to investors who know little or nothing about accounting rules.

It is also worth noting that Berkshire Hathaway's filings show that the size of new shares bought by Berkshire Hathaway fell to about $6.2 billion in the second quarter, down from $51.1 billion in the first quarter. The company sold $2.3 billion of shares in the three months to June.

Later this month, Berkshire and other large hedge funds will disclose their second-quarter investments to regulators, when investors will get details of the changes in Berkshire's stock portfolio.

In other businesses, all sectors, including railways, utilities, energy and insurance underwriting, grew in the second quarter despite the challenges of inflation and economic cooling. because they passed on higher costs to customers.

For example, BNSF Railroad introduced a fuel surcharge to generate more revenue from each car, while Forest River Inc, which makes recreational vehicles, freight trailers, pontoon boats and buses. The company, the average selling price of its vehicles has increased.

Other companies have been hit by inflation, with auto insurer Geico reporting an underwriting loss of $487 million as inflation and higher prices for used cars increase the cost of repairing and replacing damaged vehicles.

The Fed raised interest rates sharply in the second quarter to curb stubbornly high inflation, raising fears of recession and plunging US stocks into a bear market. The standard 500 index fell more than 16% in the second quarter, the biggest quarterly decline since March 2020. In the first half of the year, the standard 500 fell 20.6 per cent, the biggest first-half decline since 1970.

In a generally depressed market, Berkshire Hathaway's class A shares fell more than 22% in the second quarter, nearly 24% from the all-time high set on March 28, while the company's shares rose 17% in the first quarter. So overall, Berkshire's share price has outperformed the market so far this year.

The company's buyback rate has slowed down. About $1 billion was spent on share buybacks in the second quarter, $4.2 billion in the first half and $3.2 billion in the first quarter, the document said.

Despite the giant's recent moves to invest in stocks, its cash reserves reached $105.4 billion in the second quarter at the end of June, down only slightly from $106 billion at the end of March.

Wall Street has previously mentioned that Berkshire has continued to buy Western oil stocks since the first quarter of this year, bringing Berkshire's net stock spending to $41 billion in the first quarter, making it one of the most active buying windows in the company's history.

Berkshire has aggressively increased its positions since June, most recently for the fourth time since June, as Western oil shares have fallen.

9.9 million shares were bought at a cost of US $582 million in the week of July 3, and the total shareholding climbed to 17.4%. In the week of July 14, the position was increased to 12 million shares, bringing the total shareholding to 18.7%. Berkshire, as the largest shareholder of Western Oil, spent another $112 million on 1.94 million shares in the week of July 19th, with its total shareholding further increased to 19.4% (about $10.9 billion).

In addition to Western Oil, Buffett increased his stake in energy giant Chevron Corp (CVX) this year, and Chevron Corp was Berkshire's fourth-largest stock at the end of April. At the end of March, Berkshire also agreed to buy insurer Alleghany for $11.6 billion, Buffett's biggest deal since 2016.

The share price of western oil has doubled so far this year, while the share price of a package of oil and gas exploration companies is up only about 36%.

Usually, according to the principle of equity accounting, once investors own at least 20% of the common stock of the company, then the company's earnings should have a corresponding share in their own performance-that is, Western Oil's earnings may reach $10.7 billion this year, so if Berkshire ends up owning 20% of Western Oil. Then Berkshire's reported profit this year may increase by about $2 billion.