Hard-hit by the market rout surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of Warren Buffett, has reported first-quarter net losses of nearly $50 billion, it reported Saturday. The celebrated billionaire, considered one of the world's savviest investors, said a better measure of the company's performance was its operating earnings, which exclude investments and are less subject to sharp fluctuations. By that measure, Berkshire Hathaway saw growth to $5.9 billion from $5.55 billion a year earlier. The brutal drop in the net -- to a loss of $49.75 billion from a profit last year of $21.7 billion -- resulted primarily from the drop in value of its wide-ranging portfolio of investments amid fears over the economic impact of the global pandemic. A year earlier, the conglomerate reported profits of $15.5 billion. Buffett had predicted that a 2018 accounting rule would create "wild and capricious swings" in the company's reported profits or losses. Vog/etr/bbk/dw