Market Voices: Goolsbee on Fed rates, Buffet-UnitedHealth, Corning-T1

Seeking Alpha’s roundup of statements, announcements and remarks that could impact markets, sectors or individual stocks.

• Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said he wants to see more inflation data before he decides whether to vote to lower interest rates when the Federal Open Market Committee meets in September.

“It’s been a little mixed,” Goolsbee told CNBC on Friday, referring to the most recent inflation data reports. “I feel like we still need another one, at least, to figure out if we’re if we’re still on the golden path.”

“It all depends on the data and what’s the economic outlook. If we keep getting inflation reports like [previous] ones … I would be very comfortable that, hey, the dust is out of the air, it looks like we’re still where we were, which is a strong economy with inflation coming back down,” Goolsbee added.

• Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) has taken a significant stake in troubled healthcare company UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH).

Berkshire Hathaway said in an SEC filing that it now holds approximately 5 million shares of UnitedHealth, valued at around $1.57 billion as of June 30.

• Corning (NYSE:GLW) and T1 Energy (NYSE:TE) are teaming up to establish a fully domestic supply chain for the production of solar panel components, which has been dominated by China.

Under the deal, Corning will supply hyper-pure polysilicon and solar wafers made in its Michigan plant to T1 for the production of solar modules at T1’s Texas facility.

“This landmark supply chain agreement with Corning will help invigorate America with scalable, reliable, low-cost energy,” said T1 Chairman and CEO Daniel Barcelo, in a statement. “This is American companies building in America and protecting American energy security.”

“Corning is proud to help meet the growing need for solar products made in the United States,” said AB Ghosh, chairman and CEO of Corning’s Hemlock Semiconductor unit, in the same statement. “We’re accelerating the ramp of our advanced manufacturing capabilities to support a resilient U.S. solar supply chain.”