Berkshire Hathaway shareholders had money to burn when they descended on Omaha, Nebraska, this month for the company\u2019s annual meeting.<\/p>\n
Diamond necklaces and Cartier watches were among the most expensive pieces sold at a busy opening reception on Friday night hosted by Borsheims, a Berkshire-owned jewellery store chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were some big diamond pieces \u2014 diamond necklaces with diamonds all the way around \u2014 that were very popular this year,\u201d Karen Goracke, Borsheims\u2019 chief executive, told me. \u201cWe just sell so much, and watches are insane. I don\u2019t even know what\u2019s going on with the watch market, but we sold an extraordinary Cartier<\/a> \u2026 It was so crazy. Fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n Business newsletter<\/p>\n The business editor\u2019s exclusive analysis of all the latest financial and economic news.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tSign up with one click<\/p>\n Borsheims\u2019 highest sales years tend to correlate with strong periods for the stock market, and Goracke believes this year could be a record for the chain.<\/p>\n The crowd that descended on an unremarkable shopping centre in Omaha to buy jewellery represented a segment of America that has been doing extraordinarily well financially thanks to their exposure to the stock market in recent years, shielding them from a wider economy that is seeing price rises and slowing wage growth.<\/p>\n The S&P 500 could see its fourth consecutive year of double-digit gains in 2026, driven in part by the artificial intelligence frenzy, strong corporate earnings and resilient consumer spending at the start of the year.<\/p>\n The US stock market has so far been relatively unrattled by the global economic uncertainty caused by the Iran war. At the start of this week, the S&P 500 had rallied more than 17 per cent since March 31, adding around $10 trillion in market capitalisation.<\/p>\n Steve Lawrence, 61, a financial adviser from Kansas City, said: \u201cAll my investors have done very well over the past year. The economy and the stock market aren\u2019t necessarily the same thing. A lot of companies are making money, and their profits are up. So the market\u2019s been good, and most of my clients are doing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n Ordinary investors are buying stocks at one of the fastest paces in years. Retail investors\u2019 net buying on Citadel Securities\u2019 platform at the start of May was in the 98th percentile of weekly flows since 2019, while monthly net flows for April were at the 87th percentile of activity since 2019.<\/p>\n That confidence is reflected in consumer spending. Despite higher petrol prices, April\u2019s US retail sales data showed that consumers were still spending in other areas.<\/p>\n Overall sales rose 0.5 per cent, helped by spending growth in bars and restaurants. Online sales growth rose, as well as sales at sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores. Stephen Brown, chief North America economist at Capital Economics in London, said upward revisions to February and March sales data \u201csuggest that consumers were in a stronger position heading into the gasoline price shock than previously thought\u201d.<\/p>\n Economists like to talk about America having a \u201cK-shaped economy\u201d: the theory that wealthy households are responsible for most consumer spending growth, while working people are struggling.<\/p>\n Paul Roy, 64, a retired property appraiser and landlord, believes it. \u201cI\u2019m seeing a big divide over the last four years of how the middle and lower class people are living,\u201d he told me at the Berkshire Hathaway conference.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a complete change \u2014 because I see credit reports, and stuff like that, so I can see what\u2019s going on. And so the middle class is moving down to lower-middle class, and the lower class has nowhere to go. So they\u2019re getting eaten alive, because the inflation rate is truly eating them. <\/p>\n \u201cThe middle class \u2014 they can get a second job, let\u2019s say, or cut down on discretionary spending, and survive. But the people at the bottom, they\u2019re just trying to pay their bills \u2014 and just trying to pay their bills gets really difficult, especially when gas is at $3.80 a gallon. So, it\u2019s bad to say, but we\u2019re making more money off the people that are making less money, because asset values are going up.\u201d<\/p>\n