From Axios https://www.axios.com/newsletter 3 hours ago
1 big thing: Buybacks could exceed 2018's record high
U.S. companies are on pace to buy back more of their shares than they did during 2018's record binge, data shows, despite — or perhaps because of — mounting political opposition.
Through March 15, American companies had bought $253 billion worth of their own stock, according to data compiled by Michael Schoonover, COO of asset manager Catalyst Funds.
That total is about $18 billion more than at the same period last year, when company stock buybacks passed the previous record by hundreds of billions of dollars.
Why it matters: Companies are continuing to choose buying back their stock to reduce the number of shares outstanding and boost prices over investing in long-term capital and labor expenditures. Last year, companies spent more buying back their own stock than on capex for the first time since 2008, according to Citigroup. . .
What's next? The impact of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act on the real economy is expected to recede this year, but Schoonover tells Axios he is expecting it to continue to boost stock buybacks for years to come, as companies have already shown that's how they will use the tax cut windfall.
Further, as of September 2018, only $143 billion of the more than $2.5 trillion held overseas by U.S. companies had been repatriated to the U.S., which was a major part of the tax bill.
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