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Buffett Stays on Sidelines With Cash Rising to $137 Billion

  • Berkshire cash pile climbs almost $10 billion amid market rout
  • Buffett sees some ‘severe’ impacts from pandemic on his units

Warren Buffett speaks during the virtual Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting on a laptop computer.

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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Warren Buffett has been waiting years for stocks to look more attractive. He apparently didn’t think the first-quarter plunge was that opportunity.

As the coronavirus slowdown started to grip the U.S., the famed investor’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. was building its massive cash pile to a record $137 billion by the end of March. The company said that figure climbed even higher as it dumped more than $6 billion of stocks in April, making Buffett a net seller of equities so far this year.