Stock: The Latest Endangered Species

One reason for the market’s bull run is that there’s simply less stock out there to buy. Daniel Gross looks at the mystery of the disappearing stock market.

This year is shaping up to be a record for both leveraged buyouts and stock buybacks. According to Thomson Financial, buyouts worth $334.5 billion have been announced or completed so far this year, up from $115 billion for all of last year. According to Standard & Poor’s, members of the S&P 500 Index spent $325.15 billion on their own shares in the first three quarters of 2006 and have spent more than $674 billion since Jan. 1, 2005. Between buybacks and buyouts, that’s more than $1.1 trillion of stock taken out of public hands in less than two years.

Posted by on November 21st, 2006 at 12:33 pm


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