That’s the amount of fresh money Corporate America has allocated to buy back their own stocks this year.
“US Corporates authorized $1.009 trillion worth of stock year-to-date as of today, 10/18/24,” wrote Scott Rubner, managing director for global markets at Goldman Sachs. “This the largest year-to-date authorizations year on record, according to Birinyi.”
Stock repurchases, obviously, help provide some support for the share price by acting as a source of demand — a key one, per Rubner, who also flagged that November tends to be the busiest month for buybacks.
“US Corporates are the largest net buyer of US equities in 2024 and are ready to return from the blackout window with dry powder,” he said.
The “blackout window” is a reference to a period of time ahead of the release of quarterly results where corporates can’t carry out stock repurchases on a discretionary basis.
Buybacks are also a way to flatter operating performance on a per-share basis — in an environment where total profits stay the same but management is shrinking the share count, that’s more earnings to be spread out over each share.
