1. Berkshire Hathaway Ends Its 3-Year Buying Drought

Image shows chart of Berkshire Hathaway vs. the S&P 500 over the past 5 years

Berkshire Hathaway's insurance business had a rough quarter, but its energy and manufacturing arms covered for it. Operating earnings grew 16% year over year, as Berkshire Hathaway Energy earnings jumped 27% and manufacturing, service, and retail profits rose 24%. Total EPS more than doubled to $11.91, though that’s mostly noise: it swings with mark-to-market moves in Berkshire's stock portfolio, not the businesses themselves. The stock is little-changed in pre-market trading.

CEO Greg Abel is putting Berkshire's cash to work: After years of hoarding, Berkshire is spending again. Its cash pile fell to $365.5 billion, from $397.4 billion in the first quarter, as it bought back $4.5 billion of its own stock, closed its acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison, and became a net buyer of stocks for the first time in more than three years.
What Abel bought stays secret for now: Berkshire won't say which stocks it added until its 13-F filing hits the SEC on Aug. 14. There's no telling yet whether Abel's team found real bargains or just added to what it already owns – but Berkshire buying again at all is the shift long-term holders have wanted to see.

2. Bad Jobs News, Best Week for Stocks in Months

Stocks had their best week in months. The S&P 500 gained 3.58% to a fresh record, and the Nasdaq jumped 5.19% as beaten-down chip stocks bounced back –-- the iShares Semiconductor ETF alone rose 7.6% on the week. Futures point to a quieter open this morning, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each up modestly in early trading.

A weak jobs report sparked the rally: The economy lost 23,000 jobs in July instead of adding the roughly 80,000 economists expected, and unemployment unexpectedly fell to 4.1%. Investors read the shortfall as raising the odds of Fed rate cuts, and cheaper money tends to lift stock prices.
Wednesday's inflation report is the real test: Economists expect July CPI to ease to 3.4% year over year, with the core reading (which strips out food and energy) slipping to 2.5%. A cooler number would harden the case for a September rate cut; a hotter one would undo much of Friday's optimism. For long-term investors, the direction matters more than any single reading – watch whether rate-cut odds keep climbing, and don't overreact to one month's data.

Meet two big movers behind a strong week

3. Hidden Gems With Something to Prove

Cellebrite helps police and government agencies pull data off phones and computers, and it reports Thursday before the bell. The real test is whether new business reaccelerates after a slow first quarter. Watch federal and European sales, margins recovering from recent investment spending, and whether management can point to actual AI-product revenue instead of a roadmap.
Cisco builds the routers and switches that move traffic through corporate networks, and it reports fiscal Q4 results Wednesday after the close. Wall Street expects EPS around $1.17 on revenue near $16.82 billion. Watch AI infrastructure orders and how much of that demand runs through its new Silicon One chip platform. Valuation is already stretched, so guidance matters more than the headline beat.
Rocket Lab, a Hidden Gems Foundational Stock, reports Q2 results after today's close. Management expects revenue of $225 million to $240 million for another record, and non-GAAP gross margins of 38% to 40%. Watch progress on the Neutron rocket, integration of the recently completed Mynaric acquisition, and the pending Motiv Space Systems deal. Q1 revenue grew fast, but the company posted a net loss, so spending discipline matters as much as growth.

4. Guidance Will Matter More Than the Beat for These Rule Breakers

On Holding, the Swiss maker of premium running shoes, reports before tomorrow's open, with consensus near $0.41 EPS on roughly $1.1 billion in revenue. The strong franc is noise; what matters is whether constant-currency growth and durable margins show On still commanding premium prices. A rich valuation and an implied 8% move mean even a beat could sell off on cautious guidance.
BBB Foods, a fast-growing hard-discount grocery chain in Mexico, reports after Wednesday's close, with consensus revenue up about 47% but a wider loss. The question is whether that loss is non-cash stock compensation or real operating weakness – so watch adjusted EBITDA, same-store sales (up 16% last quarter), and gross margins to see whether its cost-and-scale advantage is compounding.
CAVA, the Mediterranean fast-casual chain, reports after Tuesday's close, with consensus of $360.1 million in revenue and $0.18 EPS, after Q1 revenue grew 32.1% and same-restaurant sales rose 9.7%. A new salmon launch should trim margins about a point on higher energy and labor costs, which is fine as long as same-restaurant sales hold. Its newer growth initiatives, though, remain a leverage story, not a proven one.

5. DoorDash's Drop Was Our Opening

TEAM HIDDEN GEMS

We recommended DoorDash in September 2025 through Hidden Gems: Secret Code. Weeks later, in early November, the company announced plans to spend "several hundred million dollars more" in 2026 on new products like autonomous delivery and a global tech platform. DoorDash shares tumbled 30%, and that recommendation went into the red for members. We were undeterred and recommended the stock nearly a dozen more times across our portfolios that fall. DoorDash has since recovered, and today nearly all of our 30+ recommendations sit in the green.

Long-term mindset: DoorDash is still early in a massive global market, and its spending is already paying off. It just won regulatory clearance to fly its own delivery drones, and orders hit 970 million last quarter, up 27%, on $1.4 billion in quarterly free cash flow.
Trust strong leaders: Founder-CEO Tony Xu has made many tough calls in building this company over the past decade and has substantial skin in the game, owning roughly $2 billion in DoorDash stock. His track record of turning big bets – grocery, advertising, international – into profitable growth supported our view that this spending would pay off too.

Knee-jerk sell-offs like this one create openings. Our Hidden Gems mindset is to lean into strong leaders and market-defining businesses, and it's paid off – our first DoorDash recommendation is up about 42% since December 2021.

6. Your Take

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