New York | Share buybacks on the US stock market have dropped to the slowest pace since the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, as rising interest rates undermine the incentive for companies to purchase their own shares.
Companies in Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index spent $US175 billion ($272 billion) buying back shares in the three months to June, according to preliminary data from S&P. That marked a 20 per cent decline from the same quarter last year, and a 19 per cent decline from the first three months of 2023.
