The Ticker A Look Back At The Week Past On Wall Street

What’s hot

Warren Buffett just has a way, doesn’t he? The new Class B shares of his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., changed hands on their first day of trading at a pace that was brisk by his company’s standards. It also climbed almost 10 percent from its offering price. Buffett, it is said, didn’t want it to do that well. … Two new stocks, Designer Holdings, and Excel Communications, both had large gains Friday from their initial offerings Thursday, with Excel up 14 points. … Because the economic picture has improved, the fortunes of cyclical companies like Caterpillar, Ford Motor and Union Carbide, which typically move in tandem with the general economy, have brightened considerably.

What’s not

Times are hard at Mattel Inc., so Chairman and Chief Executive John Amerman invested $560,000 of his money, trying to help stem a recent stock plunge. Amerman told shareholders at the meeting in El Segundo, Calif., that he’d purchased $1 million of Mattel stock, which was the market value of 40,000 shares he bought on April 17. “I thought it was a good opportunity,” Amerman said. “I’m a great believer in the long-term future growth of Mattel.” With that much money invested, he had better be.