Whither the markets?

[Southie]

Re: Whither the markets?

@Southie

^ above was June 30 2014.

In July 8 wsj - “announced buybacks have slipped in 2nd Q. Slipped to 2 yr low. Buybacks tend to peak when bull markets do”.

Read the last sentence carefully, #DearReader](http://www.paklinks.com/gs/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=DearReader) . It is stated matter of factly.

@Southie

Speaking of buybacks the stocks of companies who did buybacks rose 115% between Jan 1 2013 and end of June 2014. While snp up abt 50 pct. That indicates buyback cos probably even more overvalued.

IBM has been doing a lot of buybacks. Most of it with borrowed money. So there is another elephant in the room. Low interest rates prompting companies to issue debt and buy back stock. The bill will come due one day.

Last week’s WSJ.

Yes. This is overlooked by pundits till after the fact. Balance sheet matters. So does determining which companies wasted money on buybacks at high price