Stock Buybacks Trending Lower, Except Among Financials

The latest US Federal Reserve data confirms a decided 2017 trend: Stock buybacks are generally trending down.  The latest data from the Fed confirms several data points, including that from TrimTabs and Yardeni research. But there appears to be one dissenter to the trend: financial stocks. [timeless] Using debt to finance “equity redemptions” in the form of stock buybacks has been a controversial maneuver in some quarters. The financial engineering measure boosts short-term gains while adding leveraged exposure to the company’s share performance. Fundamental critics have argued that such capital should be deployed to invest in research and development, production…