Last week, Coca-Cola's stock price hit an all-time high, standing out amidst market turmoil. Buffett's keen eye is once again a topic of discussion in the market. This article summarizes the latest podcast from The Wall Street Journal, discussing current hedging strategies and international market opportunities. (Background: Is Buffett panicking? Berkshire Hathaway issues 90 billion yen in bonds, marking a historical low; Japanese stock index plunges by a thousand points.) (Context: Buffett, who has a lot of cash, took action! Increased investment in Japan's five major trading companies, is he bearish on the U.S. economy?) After U.S. President Trump initiated the tariff war, global risk markets have been shaken, and both the U.S. stock market and cryptocurrencies have faced significant selling pressure in recent months. However, Coca-Cola stock, known for its resilience, has stood out amidst recent volatility, breaking through $73 last week to set a new all-time high. Buffett, who has been heavily buying Coca-Cola shares since 1988, has reaped considerable rewards; Berkshire Hathaway is Coca-Cola's largest shareholder, and Buffett has even pledged that Coca-Cola will be a permanent holding for Berkshire. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of the end of April, Buffett, who successfully avoided the peak and held onto high-performing stocks, is the only billionaire among the world's top ten who has maintained positive growth this year, truly living up to his title as the Oracle of Omaha. In the Wall Street Journal podcast, the hosts discussed the event of Coca-Cola's stock price reaching an all-time high. Can ordinary investors avoid losses by following Buffett's example? They also focused on the investment value of the tech giants and consumer staples under the impact of tariffs. Let's take a look at the transcript: Telis: Hello everyone. I'm Telis Demos. I write for The Wall Street Journal's 'Street Talk.' Gunjan: I'm Gunjan Banerji, the chief writer of the market section at The Wall Street Journal. This is 'The Wall Street Journal Weekly Review,' where we keep you ahead in the world of money and investments. Telis: Each week, we engage in conversations with industry insiders and members of The Wall Street Journal's news editorial team to discuss stocks, bonds, tariffs — a lot of tariffs — Gunjan: A lot of tariffs. Telis: Well, you know what? Let's get right into it, because there’s a lot happening in the markets now. Telis: I think the biggest concern for everyone next week will be the economic data. There are three major data releases. The first, of course, is the non-farm payroll report, which will be released this Friday. The last employment report was quite strong, creating 228,000 jobs. However, the unemployment rate slightly rose to 4.2%. Sometimes, these numbers can move in slightly different directions. Technically, they are from different surveys. So, we will be watching to see if the economy remains strong. Then, I think the main attraction will be the GDP report. Many indicators, such as the closely watched Atlanta Fed report, have been predicting that GDP for the first quarter may contract. The fourth quarter of last year was 2.4%. So, this would represent a significant slowdown. Not all economists expect the economy to contract. The consensus is actually for 1% growth in the first quarter. So, compared to the fourth quarter, it is still a slowdown, but not a contraction. And of course, there’s PCE, the Fed's favorite inflation indicator. The last two components of that indicator, the consumer CPI and producer PPI, have both cooled slightly. But of course, the Fed, you know, Chairman Powell said this is a challenging situation for the Fed. You know, maybe inflation is cooling, which theoretically could support rate cuts to ensure the economy does not slide backward. But of course, there’s also that big T, tariffs, looming, and the Fed really doesn't know what impact tariffs will have on prices. So, this puts them in a tough spot, much to the President's frustration. He does not quite understand the dilemma the Fed is feeling. He would prefer to cut rates directly — Gunjan: Not quite understanding. Telis: He would prefer to cut rates directly. Further reading: U.S. economy exploded) First quarter GDP unexpectedly contracted by 0.3%, while core inflation heated up; is this a true economic recession or just a technical distortion? Gunjan: So, this is really interesting, and as everyone is worried about whether we will fall into an economic recession, this will be a very, very important week for economic data, right? Telis: Do you think the market is ready to react? Will we have an active market week with the data? Gunjan: So far, there is a huge gap between people's feelings about the economy and the market and what the actual data is showing, right? Employment data has remained good so far. Spending data has also remained good. But at the same time, the consumer confidence index is at one of its lowest levels since 1952. So, I think the key thing to watch is whether we will start to see some data begin to crack a little, or if it's too early to tell because that data is actually from before the day of liberation (when Trump announced the reciprocal tariffs). Telis: Do you think the market will feel reassured by good data, or will the market see through it and say, ‘The real show hasn’t started yet’? These data haven't truly reflected the impact of tariffs; tariffs may have already begun to affect the data, but we haven't yet reached the point where tariffs truly come into play. Gunjan: Right, because people feel so pessimistic about the economy. So, will this ultimately start to seep into lower spending? Maybe people will start laying off, and so forth. I think that uncertainty is certainly reflecting in some of the pricing in the market. I looked at some data from the options market. Options traders are betting that the S&P 500 index will experience a 1% or greater fluctuation, either up or down, on every trading day at least until May 23. So, this means people expect the crazy volatility we've seen over the past few weeks to continue. Telis: Okay, let's talk about bonds, where there has also been a lot of crazy volatility. But I think as the data rolls out, we will get more information about the bond market situation, you know, fund flows, who is buying, who is selling, and so forth. In the coming weeks, we will also see a new round of treasury auctions starting in about a week. Interestingly, what we have seen so far does not appear to be the dramatic volatility in the bond market that I expected and imagined. You know, whether foreign governments are selling U.S. treasuries as part of the trade war, right? Gunjan: We haven't seen a lot of that, right? Telis: We haven't. No, they actually — Gunjan: And that’s what everyone is worried about. Telis: So far, the best information we have about foreign governments holding U.S. treasuries, you know, we have some data up until around the first week of April. It has not shown any major changes. In fact, it has even slightly increased. Of course, this is just a proxy indicator. It is hard to know exactly what is happening until it's reviewed afterward. We do know that investors are certainly, you know, selling off treasuries, or more accurately, I would say deleveraging, right? People are reducing risk, so they are unwinding positions. This is especially true for hedge funds that had borrowed heavily to leverage bets for higher returns. They do not want to engage in that kind of borrowing anymore. They want to deleverage in that manner. So, we know that is happening. But now, what we are seeing is that the 10-year treasury yield has not skyrocketed. The situation has calmed down to some extent. Telis...

#ETF