SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Like Jay Z, Apple is heavy roll, heavy dough. The tech giant reported this week that its cash stockpile grew to a staggering $256.8 billion at the end of the first quarter, up from $233 billion a year earlier. Apple isn't alone in accumulating wealth abroad.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – A lot of chatter this week has been about Apple's whopping quarter-trillion-dollar cash stockpile. But Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is also sitting on a lot of money. The company, which has a history of making marquis acquisitions, has some $86 billion on hand. 

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Gillette is shaving its prices by as much as 20 percent and focusing on its less-expensive products to compete with cheaper rivals, such as Dollar Shave Club. And the move is rattling investors, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – It was a brief courtship, and then an amicable parting of ways. But for Kraft Heinz, there may be other fish in the sea.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – When President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize Lockheed Martin for the price tag on the F-35 fighter jet, he sent the defense contractor's shares into a minor tailspin. A similar thing happened weeks earlier, when he tweeted a rebuke of Boeing for the price of the new Air Force One.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Wells Fargo’s recent “living will” stumble is just that, says finance professor David Kass at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Some 66 years ago, MBA student Warren Buffett trekked from New York to Washington, D.C., seeking career wisdom.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Warren Buffett once referred to airlines as an investor's "death trap." So why would his Berkshire Hathaway be placing big bets on airline shares? The Oracle of Omaha's railroad strategy offers some clues, says finance professor David Kass at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Though polls show Hillary Clinton losing ground to Donald Trump, her advantage in the betting markets continues.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — AT&T's proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner could be the first of a string of similar mergers to come.