US corporate stock buybacks on pace for record high in 2025
US corporate stock buybacks are moving to a record high in 2025, according to data from Birinyi Associates.
Morning Brief anchor Madison Mills evaluates this trend and what this communicates about market sentiment (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) from both investors and major companies.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Could the Fed be 'the real issue' for the economy amid tariffs?
President Trump has characterized trade negotiations with Chinese officials as being "not easy" as the two countries renew negotiations following a phone call between Trump and China's President Xi Jinping last week. Infrastructure Capital Advisors CEO and CIO Jay Hatfield comes on to talk about the impacts of tariffs on markets (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) as the Federal Reserve contributes additional economic pressures. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here. Well, tech stocks leading the market rally once again, as the possibility of easing trade tensions lifts investor sentiment. President Trump saying China is quote, "not easy," as talks are set to resume today. Would a rift in the fragile US-China relationship derail the rally? Joining me now, we've got J. Hatfield, Infrastructure Capital Advisors CEO and chief investment officer. J, it's always great to speak with you. Talk to me about how you are viewing or potentially pricing a risk of these trade talks getting derailed. Thanks, Mandy. It's great to be on. Well, we have a completely non-consensus call that the, uh, all the trade talks, obviously China's the most important, but as a whole, are not that critical to the US economy. It's about 10% of the US economy. Um, the effective rates gonna be somewhere, probably between 10 and 15. That's less than a half percent of GDP. And meanwhile, energy prices, they were down 20, they're down about 15. That's a much more important driver of inflation. So, we're bullish. Inflation is going to come down, even tomorrow. We're forecasting below consensus. And so, we think that, although it's been the key driver this quarter, uh, earnings are going to be more important next quarter. So we're projecting a summer power rally. So, talk to me about the biggest risk to your outlook then. Is it that tariffs have a bigger impact than anticipated? Is it corporations holding off on hiring CapEx, and that leading to a slowdown? Like, where would you see the risks to that outlook? Well, everybody's focused on tariffs and how that's slowing the economy, but nobody's focused on the fact that the Fed has ultra-tight monetary policy. They're actually shrinking the money supply, which is very dangerous. They did that before the great financial crisis. Um, normally it grows at 5, it's shrinking at 1. So the real issue, so I agree with the president, which I don't always agree with him, but that the real issue is the Fed. They're slowing the housing market. It hasn't crashed because there's a shortage of housing. So I'd see the key risk is the Fed remains on hold because they're incapable of forecasting inflation, focused way too much on the expectations theory of inflation, which has been discredited, and failed to realize that tariffs even are a one-time cost. Should be analyzed as sales tax and ignored for inflation purposes. So, the three top risks to the market are the Fed, the Fed, and the Fed. So, it's it's a great overview, J, because you see the power rally coming, but the Fed could potentially derail it in your view. How should investors be positioned then to benefit from that, while also staying diversified to prevent against any, uh, potential downside risk? Well, our scenario is, so we're bullish about bonds and stocks. Our scenario assumes that the labor market continues to slow, and even though this Fed has zero ability to forecast inflation, they are obsessed with the labor market. They're almost all Keynesians, so they're all believe the labor market drives everything. We strongly disagree with that, but that's what they believe. So, we think this deceleration will continue. Inflation will continue to be, really low if you correct for shelter and that they will cut. So, we you know, we don't give like probabilities of this and that, and probability that an asteroid will destroy South America. We have a base case, we're going to stick to the base case. So we think that, uh, the number of cuts will be two to three, rates will come down, and we will get to the 6,600, which is 22 times next year's earnings. So what's the best way to benefit from that then, J? Well, we, um, are, uh, are recommending stocks that tend to be higher on the risk spectrum. So, financials, so like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, we think the private equity firms like KKR are a great way to play it. Uh, REITs, so uh, and industrials. So be on the risk side, don't be in McDonald's and Philip Morris, and Coke, because you're worried about a recession. We don't think there's going to be a recession, think rates are coming down. So we'd be aggressive on the picks and and go into companies that benefit from a booming stock market, or at least a increase in stock market, likely investment banks. J, always great to get your thoughts. Thanks so much. Thanks, Mandy.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
US-China trade deal news, Fed rate cut odds: Market Takeaways
US stocks (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) eased off the gas and closed Wednesday's session slightly in the red after May's Consumer Price Index (PPI) indicated inflation to be cooling. Yahoo Finance senior markets reporter Josh Schafer examines the trading day's biggest themes and catalysts for equities, including how markets have been reacting to President Trump's touting of a US-China trade deal and what the fresh inflation data indicates about the Federal Reserve's odds of cutting interest rates. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Nasdaq, stocks tick down after May CPI shows easing inflation
US stocks (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) ended Wednesday's trading session in negative territory, the Nasdaq Composite leading slight losses by falling half a percent after May's Consumer Price Index (CPI) report saw inflation ease last month and President Trump announcing a trade deal with China. Market Domination Overtime's Julie Hyman and Yahoo Finance markets and data editor Jared Blikre recap the day's market and sector action amid the day's biggest headlines. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination Overtime here. looks like maybe we've got I I don't know if this we could be changed any less on the Dow, uh, for the Dow on the day, but you get the idea. Very little change here, and that's because things are investors are really being pulled in a lot of different directions. On the one hand, you have what seem like encouraging headlines on the US and China moving towards a framework for a trade deal, but we don't have the actual trade deal as of yet. So, some, uh, lack of clarity on that end. This morning's CPI report showing that tariffs are not yet necessarily feeding their way through to inflation, at least not overly hot inflation. What does that mean for the Fed? Still a lot of questions about whether that's going to remain the case going forward. All in all said and done, the Dow having quite a volatile day and then finishing little changed. The S&P 500, which was in the green a couple of for a couple periods over the course of the session, finishing down by a quarter of 1%. Nasdaq, similar action there and finishing down by a half of 1%. Meanwhile, quick mention of bond yields, as we talk about CPI and Fed expectations. 4.41%. So we've definitely seen yields come down here as expectations have risen, uh, looking at Fed funds futures for the Fed to perhaps cut once or twice this year, starting summer, maybe into fall. Jared's got a closer look at today's action. Yes, and I'll just start out on the tenure here, and I believe this is priced in Central Time. And right around 1:00 p.m. Eastern, that is when we had that big bond auction. There were some concerns that there might be low demand, but yields fell on that, so that indicates there was probably good demand, but I got to check out the details. I want to go back to, let's do the S&P 600 here. I've been charting the the small cap rise and over the last 10 days, still holding onto impressive gains, 3%. Here's the S&P 500 over 10 days. Just been edging very slowly high, slowly higher, and it's still within about 2% of those record highs. That story has not changed over the last few days. I will highlight the VIX as well. It was up a little bit today. That's 10 days. Let's do a one day. You can see into the green there by the close, but only up less than one point. So a lot of ho-hum market action, nothing to write home about. And let's check out the sector action, because only no, we got a couple more in the green now. Energy, utilities, healthcare, and industrials all in the green, but really only energy standing out there of 1.41%. That is on the back of a WTI crude move up about 4% today. So it's in the $67 range right now. And materials, though, taking a dive to the to the underside of about 1%. Want to show you the Nasdaq 100, a lot more red than green here. Broadcom and Tesla standouts here. Broadcom up over 3%, Tesla just barely green. Microsoft also in that camp, but Amazon down 2%, Meta and Apple down more than 1%. Nothing, uh, nothing too big standing out on my radar. Looks like Intel was actually down about 6.5% today. And then we want to check out the Dow, and we'll get into some leaders as well. So, aside from the mega caps that we just looked at, Visa up today about two-thirds of a percent. Chevron, not surprisingly, to the upside, as energy was a standout. And then Caterpillar up 1.25% right there on the right hand side of your chart. I mentioned leaders, so I'll close on this. Uh, small oil, PSCE is that small oil ETF. That was up 2%. Then we have a Korean ET ETF Ark Innovation Fund. So some of those smaller names, uh, ITA, bets, tan, go down the list. But what's interesting here, home builders took the biggest tumble down 1.5%. And then transportation, I was looking at the Dow Transport index, and that was down, I believe, the most in several weeks. So transport took a a little bit of a tumble today, but again, nothing to write home about. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
