• Load up the station wagon and point it toward middle America; it's time once again for Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) annual meeting! Breakout is going to be there along with self-proclaimed devotees of the value investing religion as preached by Warren Buffett.

    Like all things related to the Oracle of Omaha, it's tough to separate the genuine capitalist genius from the hype. Buffett has done more to help individual investors put their money to work wisely than any living American. He's a bit like Ben Franklin: a massively wealthy American original with a gift for doling out timeless wisdom he himself only occasionally follows.

    If Buffett feels conflicted about being the man who first characterized derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction" while at the same time being one of the largest and most successful derivatives traders in history, he doesn't show it. Being the best long-term investor in history means never having to say your sorry.

    None of which says much about the merits of attending the annual meeting. In the attached video Lee Munson of Portfolio, LLC says investors shouldn't confuse the spectacle with the substance of Buffett's message. "One of the biggest mistakes I see from clients of my firm is that they'll go through the annual report from Berkshire Hathaway, they'll take a look at his largest positions, and they'll buy them."

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  • More evidence this week that the Chinese economy is slowing. Manufacturing activity in April increased at a slower pace than what was expected and what was reported the previous month. And that followed earlier reports showing first quarter GDP slowing to a 7.7% annual rate compared to 7.9% in the fourth quarter.

    Related: China Has Been and Will Continue to Be a Bad Place to Invest: Jim Chanos

    By comparison, first quarter growth in the U.S. was less than one-third the rate in China. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.5% annual rate in the first quarter following 0.4% in the fourth quarter.

    Clearly both mega economies are slowing but at very different rates.

    “Even 7.5% or 7.7% growth is something we would kill for,” says Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University. He recently spent a month in China and spoke with The Daily Ticker at this week’s Milken Institute Global Conference about what he found.

    The “hot button debate” in Beijing right now, he says, is not about democracy

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  • A month ago, investors let out a collective gasp when the government revealed that only 88,000 jobs had been created in March. But contrary to conventional wisdom, this awful and unexpected update on the most important aspect of our economy did not tank the markets, it sparked a rally.

    Today, with stocks about 2.5% higher than they were in early April and trading at record highs, we find ourselves on the cusp of another critical payroll report. Only this time, expectations are low and falling as investors brace for disappointment.

    "You still have a lot of stuff pushing down on hiring," says John Canally, economic strategist at LPL Financial, in the attached video. "Because companies can't grow revenues, the only way they can control costs is to not do a lot of hiring."

    As of now, consensus for Friday's report from the Department of Labor stands at 155,000 total jobs and no change in the 7.6% unemployment rate. While today's weaker than expected ADP/Moody's report will surely lead to some downward revisions over the next two days, Canally doesn't think we'll see anything nearly as a bad as what we saw in March.

    ''I think in the past, people would have marked down their numbers for the jobs report a little further," he says, adding his belief that over the past year or so the recently revised ADP report "has lost a little street cred.''

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  • The number of weekly jobless claims has taken an unexpected drop. The Labor Department says there were just 324,000 new claims last week. That's down from 339,000 last week and handily beats the consensus which was for 345,000. Tomorrow is the government's monthly jobs report. Tune in live at 8:30 Eastern for a special expanded show.

    GM (GM) has blown-out estimates with earnings, which it released in just the past hour. The biggest of the American automakers posted 67-cents a share, well ahead of estimates for 54-cents. It also beat on revenues. Cigna (CI) also beat big-time this morning. The insurer says profit rose 39% in the quarter to $1.72 a share. Revenue also beat by more than $1/2 billion. Beazer Homes (BZH), on the other hand missed terribly. It lost 78-cents a share when estimates were for 70-cents. Revenue also missed.

    Facebook (FB) shares have been moving about 1.5% higher in reaction to the company's earnings report which was released yesterday afternoon. Earnings missed

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