Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) reported a stake in MasterCard Inc. (MA),

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) reported a stake in MasterCard Inc. (MA), the second-biggest payments network, after the billionaire chairman hired money manager Todd Combs to handle part of his company’s portfolio.

Buffett’s firm owned 216,000 shares of MasterCard on March 31, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said in a regulatory filing listing its U.S. stock portfolio. The stake is valued at $60.3 million, based on the closing price on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, when the filing was released.

Our Idea is still Western Union which is another stock that Todd Combs like...

Glencore creates wealth - - Commodities alive and well

Glencore Executives’ $23 Billion Mother Lode Beats Wall Street

2011-05-19 16:33:13.352 GMT

By Christine Harper and Zijing Wu

     May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Glencore International Plc’s initial public offering values the stakes of the company’s top six executives at $23 billion, surpassing wealth generated by some of Wall Street’s most storied firms.

     In contrast to Glencore, a commodities trader based in Baar, Switzerland, the eight senior executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. held stakes worth a combined $1.26 billion at the time of that firm’s IPO in 1999, while Blackstone Group LP’s top seven executives held $11.9 billion worth of stock after selling shares worth $2.8 billion in their 2007 IPO, according to the New York-based firms’ prospectuses.

     Glencore sold 1.14 billion shares, or about 16.4 percent of the company after the IPO, to the public and so-called cornerstone investors including Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments PJSC and BlackRock Inc. The company has an option to sell an additional 116.9 million shares to meet demand.

Great opportunity in Crude

We believe there is a great trading opportunity in Crude oil.. We like being long Crude as a value play whilst selling Call options in Jan 2011 thus capturing the spread as well

Crude Oil Spread Opportunity

I see an opportunity brweing in Crude Oil; Purchase Oct Crude - Sell Jan Crude ... I think there is $ 2 per barrel to be made here...

Russia's grain harvest may fall 20-26 percent to 72-78 million tons in 2010

Russia's grain harvest may fall 20-26 percent to 72-78 million tons in 2010 as Russia suffers its worst drought in decades, Russian Grain Union President Arkady Zlochevsky said on Monday.




Russia's 2009 harvest totaled 97 million tons.



The Russian Grain Union predicts three possible scenarios for development of the grain market.



In the worst case, Russia will harvest only 72 million tons and export 11 million tons, while reserve stocks will amount to 10.4-14.4 million tons.