Yesterday we showed the absolutely ridiculous move that is taking place [3]in corporate buyback announcements. And since the blackout period for buybacks is officially over, and announcements can now become executions courtesy of Wall Street's VWAP algos, here again, by popular demand, is the chart showing the record blow-off top in debt-funded stock buybacks which together with central bank buying (such as the SNB) should be enough to support the market even as outflows from equity funds have never been higher [4].
[5]
The biggest culprits:
[6]
The industry breakdown confirms what we have said before [7]: "when the same management teams that sell record amounts of their own company stock to the companies they control - companies which are now buying back record amounts of stock, this is not only the worst possible conflict of interest, it means, for lack of a better word, that the Nasdaq, bubble or not, has become the biggest circle jerk in history!"
[8]
And putting it all in context:
[8]
