Blackout Of Buybacks Threatens Bullish Run

by Lance Roberts of Real Investment Advice, 3/25/24

With the last half of March upon us, the blackout of stock buybacks threatens to reduce one of the liquidity sources supporting the bullish run this year. If you don’t understand the importance of corporate share buybacks and the blackout periods, here is a snippet of a 2023 article I previously wrote.

“The chart below via Pavilion Global Markets shows the impact stock buybacks have had on the market over the last decade. The decomposition of returns for the S&P 500 breaks down as follows:“

  • 6.1% from multiple expansions (21% at Peak),
  • 57.3% from earnings (31.4% at Peak),
  • 9.1% from dividends (7.1% at Peak), and
  • 27% from share buybacks (40.5% at Peak)

S&P 500

Yes, buybacks are that important.

As John Authers pointed out:

“For much of the last decade, companies buying their own shares have accounted for all net purchases. The total amount of stock bought back by companies since the 2008 crisis even exceeds the Federal Reserve’s spending on buying bonds over the same period as part of quantitative easing. Both pushed up asset prices.”

In other words, between the Federal Reserve injecting massive liquidity into the financial markets and corporations buying back their shares, there have been no other real buyers in the market.