- Thanks to the strong dollar, a better idea for capital allocation might be buying companies overseas rather than returning cash to shareholders, suggests Goldman's David Kostin, citing FedEx's $4.8B purchase of TNT Express as a prime example.
- American firms are expected to repurchase roughly $1T in stock this year, up 18% from 2014's strong level. Most notably of late is GE's promise of $50B in buybacks, the 2nd-largest-ever commitment (behind Apple's $90B).
- Of course, if a nice chunk of that $1T were instead devoted to M&A, Goldman's bottom line wouldn't complain.
- ETFs: PKW, SYLD, SPYB