S&P 500 Stock Buybacks Retreat 44% in Second Quarter

Financials Add Shares as Liquidity Concerns Continue

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Standard & Poor's, the world's leading
index provider, announced today that preliminary results show S&P 500 stock
buyback activity slowing considerably during the second quarter of 2008,
posting its lowest level since the third quarter of 2005. According to
Standard & Poor's Index Services, S&P 500 buybacks are set to post $87.9
billion in stock buybacks during the second quarter, representing a 44.3%
decline over the $157.8 billion spent during the second quarter of 2007.
"Buybacks entered a different stage during the second quarter, as
uncertainty grew and commitment to significant cash outflows for purchases
declined," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor's.
"The dollar level of buybacks, however, remains at historic highs partially
due to the need to satisfy stock options. Standard & Poor's anticipates that
the third quarter of 2008 will also show a significant decline in stock
buybacks due to the uncertainty in the market, and when comparing it to the
record $172 billion spent on buybacks during the third quarter of 2007."
On a sector basis, Standard & Poor's notes the continuing shift in sector
buyback participation. Financial issues continued to shy away from stock
buybacks during the second quarter of this year, accounting for just 6.58% of
the aggregate repurchases. Additionally, many Financials issued shares and
dilutive instruments to shore up liquidity during the quarter. Conversely,
Information Technology continued to increase its expenditures on buybacks
(after slowing for prior periods), and now accounts for 26.23% of all
buybacks.
"Recent market events have spurred several large buyback program
announcements, and as a result, we expect authorizations to increase," adds
Silverblatt. "Fulfillment will depend on market conditions, but more
importantly on perceptions."
Since the buyback boom began during the fourth quarter of 2004, S&P 500
issues have spent approximately $1.64 trillion on stock buybacks compared to
$1.73 trillion on Capital Expenditures and $845 billion on dividends.
The S&P 500 is the world's most followed stock market index with $1.5
trillion directly indexed via ETF's, index funds and other investment
vehicles. Over $4.85 trillion is benchmarked to the S&P 500.
Historical S&P 500 buyback data can be found at:
www.marketattributes.standardandpoors.com

STANDARD & POOR'S INDEX SERVICES

AS
MARKET REPORTED DIVIDEND &
VALUE EARNINGS DIVIDENDS BUYBACKS BUYBACK
QUARTER BILLION BILLION BILLION BILLION YIELD

06/30/2008 $11,162.57 $114.85 $61.94 $87.91 6.87%
03/31/2008 $11,510.68 $135.24 $61.72 $113.90 7.25%
12/31/2007 $12,867.85 $68.53 $67.09 $141.71 6.49%
09/30/2007 $13,469.72 $133.66 $60.84 $171.95 5.89%
06/30/2007 $13,349.73 $194.30 $59.44 $157.76 5.43%
03/31/2007 $12,706.32 $190.75 $58.32 $117.70 5.34%
12/31/2006 $12,728.86 $181.65 $61.76 $105.18 5.15%
09/30/2006 $12,019.85 $193.19 $54.78 $109.81 5.39%
06/30/2006 $11,496.84 $182.02 $54.46 $116.66 5.34%
03/31/2006 $11,659.69 $177.30 $53.25 $100.18 4.92%
12/31/2005 $11,254.54 $155.89 $54.83 $104.28 4.90%
09/30/2005 $11,082.59 $160.72 $48.99 $81.47 4.58%
06/30/2005 $10,890.01 $167.19 $49.03 $81.42 4.31%
03/31/2005 $10,819.81 $154.43 $48.99 $82.05 3.92%
12/31/2004 $11,288.60 $129.85 $49.68 $66.42 3.35%
09/30/2004 $10,397.80 $132.28 $45.54 $45.68 3.34%
06/30/2004 $10,623.42 $142.01 $43.43 $42.46 3.11%
03/31/2004 $10,461.32 $141.01 $42.36 $42.92 2.97%
12/31/2003 $10,285.83 $121.74 $46.76 $38.53 2.84%
09/30/2003 $9,207.69 $116.12 $39.96 $34.13
06/30/2003 $9,001.01 $102.53 $37.74 $28.36
03/31/2003 $7,826.70 $109.99 $36.19 $30.03

S&P 500 SECTOR % OF TOTAL BUYBACKS
Preliminary Q2 2008 DATA

Q1 2007 Q2 2007 Q3 2007 Q4 2007 Q1 2008 Q2 2008
Consumer
Discretionary 11.55% 9.63% 20.30% 11.63% 10.92% 10.62%
Consumer Staples 6.20% 9.51% 9.36% 9.44% 8.34% 10.60%
Energy 9.43% 10.08% 8.56% 17.87% 14.79% 17.41%
Financials 28.68% 17.00% 16.15% 13.41% 12.35% 6.58%
Healthcare 9.57% 11.88% 10.85% 10.67% 12.25% 11.84%
Industrials 7.90% 8.80% 10.19% 9.96% 11.76% 11.03%
Information
Technology 20.28% 26.82% 13.90% 22.53% 21.90% 26.23%
Materials 1.66% 1.68% 3.78% 1.75% 2.05% 1.21%
Telecommunication
Services 3.48% 4.16% 2.30% 2.13% 5.06% 3.06%
Utilities 1.25% 0.45% 4.62% 0.59% 0.60% 1.43%
S&P 500 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

LARGEST Q2 2008 BUYBACK EXPENDITURES, $ MILLIONS
From Q4
COMPANY SECTOR Q2 2008 Q2 2007 Change 2004
Exxon Mobil (6th
largest in S&P
history) Energy $8,761 $8,083 8.4% $102,165
International
Business Information
Machines Corp Technology $4,737 $14,807 -68.0% $41,369
Microsoft Corp Information
Technology $4,306 $7,217 -40.3% $67,017
Intel Corp Information
Technology $2,576 $137 1780.3% $25,132
ConocoPhillips Energy $2,512 $1,000 151.2% $14,858
Procter & Gamble Co Consumer
Staples $2,012 $1,517 32.6% $36,859
AT&T Inc Telecom-
munication
Services $2,006 $3,899 -48.6% $21,436
Philip Morris Consumer
International, Inc Staples $1,948 N/A N/A $1,948
Johnson & Johnson Healthcare $1,838 $444 314.0% $18,062
Chevron Corp. Energy $1,662 $1,432 16.1% $17,628
TOP 10 TOTAL $32,358 $38,536 $346,474

About Standard & Poor's Index Services
Standard & Poor's Index Services, the world's leading index provider,
maintains a wide variety of investable and benchmark indices to meet an array
of investor needs. Its family of indices includes the S&P 500, an index with
$1.5 trillion invested and $4.85 trillion benchmarked, and the S&P Global
1200, a composite index comprised of seven regional and country headline
indices. For more information, please visit www.standardandpoors.com/indices.
About Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is
the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence, including
independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and
data. With approximately 8,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates,
located in 23 countries and markets, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of
the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more
than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they
need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions.
For more information, visit http://www.standardandpoors.com.
SOURCE Standard & Poor's

David R. Guarino Communications Standard & Poor's 212-438-1471
dave_guarino@standardandpoors.com Howard Silverblatt Senior Index Analyst
Standard & Poor's 212-438-3916 howard_silverblatt@standardandpoors.com