THE BIG FIVE, last 8 days
BUYBACKS:
AAPL repurchased $16BN in the second quarter, down 6% on the period last year, though by far the biggest stock repurchaser among S&P 500 companies in recent years.
GOOG spent $6.9bn on buybacks for the quarter, up 92% from a year prior
MSFT purchased $5.8bn of its own stock in the period, up 25% from a year earlier.
This runs against the grain of the broader market, where many businesses reduced or suspended buybacks