MS

1. CNBC just reported that the big 8 banks in the U.S are going to be suspending share buybacks.
2. BAC, BNY, C, GS, JPM, MS, State Street & WFC are the banks that have suspended buybacks.
3. CNBC link here

This begs a few questions:

1. What happened to the capital cushion and Fort Knox balance sheet everyone was talking about? Probably, the move is to conserve cash.
2. Were they asked to suspend buybacks from someone else?
3. All the banks had record buybacks in 2019 when the stock prices were up and suspending when the stock prices are down. A classic strategy of buy high and sell low.
4. Is the coordinated function to prevent weaker banks from being targetted during this time?
5. If the banks are doing this at this point, coupled with the Fed’s decision to go down to zero, the underlying business must have cracked. They must seeing signs of distress everywhere.