Bottom of the Ninth for Stock Buybacks

Research from Goldman Sachs shows that 90 percent of S&P 500 companies will report earnings by Nov. 4 â?? meaning they are in a stock buyback blackout period. According to Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, the "biggest force in the stock market right now is the buybacks and mergers and acquisitions." Dalio adds that those lines of activity account for "something like 70% of the percentâ? of the buying action in the stock market. That could be just the thing to push the Dow back under the 18,000 level for the first time since July.