Markets
The Things That Used to Matter to Stock Investors Don’t Anymore
- Net corporate selling explodes but S&P 500 hasn’t budged
- Reopening focus mutes all bad news from earnings to valuations
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Rising earnings. Economic growth. Bargains. A lot of the stuff investors were thought to cherish has been in short supply in the rally that has swept markets since March.
Also: share repurchases, all but gutted as the coronavirus lockdown put a premium on conserving cash. A measure of equity demand that tallies announced buybacks and takeovers fell to $12 billion last month, the second-lowest level in the past decade, data compiled by TrimTabs Investment Research show. Meanwhile, stock offerings exploded, pushing the total to a record $94 billion.