S&P 500 Stock Buybacks Continue Albeit At Lower Levels

Standard & Poor's reported that S&P 500 stock buybacks posting $89.7 billion in stock repurchases during the third quarter of 2008, representing a 47.8% decline over the record setting $172.0 billion spent during the third quarter of 2007. S&P said companies are remaining cautious with spending their precious cash in these uncertain times.

"Starting in the fourth quarter of last year, companies began to retreat from stock buybacks," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor's. "Year-to-date, Standard & Poor's data shows that stock buybacks are coming in at $156 billion less than this time last year."

S&P said cash levels are near all-time highs and instead of spending this cash on buying back shares, companies are hoarding the cash so they won't have to access the expensive credit markets.

On a sector basis, Standard & Poor's notes that Energy was the only sector to increase buybacks during the third quarter of '08 versus the third quarter of '07.

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