The Warren Buffett Index has risen to 205%, the highest point ever recorded. This figure officially surpasses the levels seen during the Dot-Com Bubble and the 2008 Financial Crisis.
This means that the total capitalization of the US stock market now stands at more than double the country's GDP, marking the most expensive valuation on record.
The market reached this milestone just as trading for the second half of 2025 began, and Wall Street's reaction? Flat. Stocks barely budged. The indicator may be screaming red, but traders seem to be holding their breath.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 426 points, or 1%, while the S&P 500 held near the flat line and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6%. The Dow's move came after a shift in trading behavior.
Investors unwound their positions in tech stocks like Microsoft and Nvidia, two of the biggest gainers in Q2, and rotated into healthcare companies. Amgen, Merck, and UnitedHealth rose nearly 3%, while Johnson & Johnson added nearly 2%. The tech sector select fund, which gained nearly 23% last quarter, began Q3 down 1%.
Trump's tax bill passes the Senate as Musk criticizes it, Powell hints at a pause.
President Donald Trump's new tax and spending bill passed the Senate on Tuesday by a narrow 51-50 vote. The legislation, which includes sweeping budget changes, now heads to the House. But it is already facing public criticism from major corporate figures.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the bill “totally insane and destructive” on Truth Social. In response, Trump posted on the same platform calling on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to investigate the government subsidies Musk’s companies have received. This is the second time this year that the two have clashed over federal funding and regulatory priorities.
Elon Musk's reaction came on the same day Tesla shares fell more than 5%. It was one of the worst-performing large-cap stocks. His public comments raised concerns about a political backlash against clean energy subsidies, a key part of Tesla's business model.
Elsewhere, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell gave a policy update during a European Central Bank panel in Portugal. Powell said that without Trump's tariffs, the Fed would likely have cut interest rates again by now.
“We did, in effect, pause when we saw the magnitude of the tariffs, and essentially all inflation forecasts for the United States increased materially as a result,” Powell said. He did not clarify whether July would be too soon for another move, saying instead that any decision would be based on data.
Corporate bitcoin buying outpaces ETFs for the third quarter.
On the crypto side, corporate Bitcoin buying continued to outpace ETFs for the third consecutive quarter. Public companies added around 131,000 BTC in Q2, increasing their holdings by 18%. In comparison, ETFs added 111,000 BTC, an increase of 8%.
Strategy is leading the way, still holding the largest reserve among public companies. But others are catching up. Ben Werkman, chief investment officer at Swan Bitcoin, said the landscape is changing. “It’s going to be very difficult to reach Strategy’s scale,” Werkman said. “They’re going to be the preferred landing place for institutional capital because of the deep liquidity around their capital, while these smaller stocks are going to be really good risk-on returns for retail investors and small institutions that want more of that return.”
Back on Wall Street, Berkshire Hathaway shares responded to Buffett's hype. Class A shares closed at $733,214.44, up $4,414.44, or 0.61%, while Class B shares ended the day at $488.70, up 0.60%. These gains came as the Buffett Indicator dominated headlines, although the company's performance had no direct link to the overall market overvaluation the indicator measures.
The markets had already recovered significantly after their April plunge, triggered by Trump's aggressive tariff policies. At that point, the S&P 500 flirted with bear market territory. Since then, things have turned around. The S&P 500 closed Q2 with a 10.6% gain, and the Nasdaq jumped nearly 18%.
Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More. $BTC $ETH $DOGE
