(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it every Friday evening in your inbox.)Berkshire gains ground but still trails S&P as '26 enters second halfWith 2026 a bit more than half over, Berkshire Hathaway's B shares are down 1.8% year-to-date and 12.4 percentage points behind the S&P 500's 10.7% gain. (Including dividends, the S&P is up 11.4% giving it a 13.1 percentage point lead).A strong June for Berkshire erased almost a third of its 17.5 percentage point deficit as of June 1, its biggest losing margin of the year so far.Even with that June bump, however, it's been a tough Q2 (+ 10 days) for Berkshire with a gain of a bit more than 3% versus the benchmark's strong tech-driven 16% advance, totally erasing what was a slim 1.8 percentage point Berkshire lead at the end of March.Last year, Berkshire underperformed the S&P by 5.5 percentage points excluding dividends. The deficit was 7.0 percentage points with dividends included.Berkshire execs spotted at exclusive Sun Valley conferenceBerkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel and portfolio manager Ted Weschler aren't featured in the Forbes article on "Sun Valley's Billionaire Summer Camp" now underway in Idaho.But they are on the magazine's list of attendees and photos from CNBC's David Grogan and Brendan McDermid of Reuters provide visual evidence they are present at the annual Allen & Co. invitation-only gathering of moguls, along with names like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman.Greg Abel, President and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway