NEW YORK, June 18 /PRNewswire/ — Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced today that preliminary results show that S&P 500 issues spent $30.8 billion on stock repurchases during the first quarter of 2009, representing a 73% decline from the $113.9 billion spent during the first quarter of 2008. Buybacks are off 82% from their peak during the third quarter of 2007 when S&P 500 companies spent $172 billion on share repurchases.

"This was the fifth consecutive quarterly reduction in stock buybacks for the S&P 500 companies," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor's. "However, a closer look at the data reveals two more telling stories. The first is that Exxon Mobil represented over a quarter of the buybacks that took place during the first quarter. The second is that 83 of the issues that repurchased shares during the fourth quarter of 2008 did not participate in a stock buyback program during the first quarter of 2009."

"The need to conserve capital in the current recession, combined with the uncertainty of future cash flow, has made buybacks too high risk for most corporations," continues Silverblatt. "Standard & Poor's expects buybacks to remain weak for the foreseeable future, even as earnings are expected to improve. Buybacks are now well behind dividends in corporate priorities, and dividends are declining."

On a sector basis, Standard & Poor's notes that all groups significantly reduced their buyback activity during the first quarter of 2009 with utilities and telecommunications only making token purchases. Since the buyback boom began during the fourth quarter of 2004, S&P 500 issues have spent approximately $1.8 trillion on stock buybacks compared to 2.0 trillion on Capital Expenditures, $1.0 trillion on dividends, and earning $2.3 trillion in As Reported Earnings,.

"The reality appears to be that buybacks as we know them are gone, at least until the return of better times," concludes Silverblatt.

Historical S&P 500 buyback data can be found at: http://www.marketattributes.standardandpoors.com/.

  STANDARD & POOR'S INDEX SERVICES
  S&P 500 BUYBACKS

                                      AS                            DIVIDEND
  PERIOD       MARKET   OPERATING   REPORTED                           &
                VALUE    EARNINGS   EARNINGS  DIVIDENDS   BUYBACKS  BUYBACK
           $ BILLIONS  $ BILLIONS $ BILLIONS $ BILLIONS $ BILLIONS   YIELD
  QUARTER
  03/31/2009
   prelim.     $6,928      $88.04     $65.94     $51.73     $30.78    7.13%
  12/31/2008   $7,852      -$0.78   -$202.11     $62.19     $48.12    7.48%
  09/30/2008  $10,181     $142.90     $86.16     $61.44     $89.71    6.73%
  06/30/2008  $11,163     $148.43    $112.15     $61.94     $87.91    6.88%
  03/30/2008  $11,511     $144.63    $135.24     $61.72    $113.90    7.25%
  12/31/2007  $12,868     $133.38     $68.53     $67.09    $141.71    6.49%
  09/30/2007  $13,470     $184.13    $133.66     $61.21    $171.95    5.89%
  06/30/2007  $13,350     $213.65    $194.30     $59.76    $157.76    5.44%
  03/31/2007  $12,706     $200.23    $190.75     $58.53    $117.70    5.35%
  12/31/2006  $12,729     $197.35    $181.65     $61.79    $105.18    5.16%
  09/30/2006  $12,020     $207.22    $193.19     $55.07    $109.81    5.40%
  06/30/2006  $11,497     $198.67    $182.02     $54.52    $116.66    5.34%
  03/31/2006  $11,660     $186.85    $177.30     $53.37    $100.18    4.92%
  12/31/2005  $11,255     $182.03    $155.89     $54.83    $104.28    4.90%
  09/30/2005  $11,083     $169.74    $160.72     $48.99     $81.47    4.58%
  06/30/2005  $10,890     $177.52    $167.19     $49.03     $81.42    4.31%
  03/31/2005  $10,820     $164.42    $154.43     $48.99     $82.05    3.92%
  12/31/2004  $11,289     $167.20    $129.85     $49.68     $66.42    3.35%
  09/30/2004  $10,398     $157.47    $132.28     $45.54     $45.68    3.34%
  06/30/2004  $10,623     $158.12    $142.01     $43.43     $42.46    3.11%
  03/31/2004  $10,461     $147.42    $141.01     $42.36     $42.92    2.97%
  12/31/2003  $10,286     $137.65    $121.74     $46.76     $38.53    2.84%



  S&P 500 SECTOR BUYBACKS
                                                                       CHG:
                                                                     Q1,'09-
  SECTOR $ MILLIONS         Q1,'09  Q4,'08  Q3,'08  Q2,'08   Q1,'08  Q1,'08

  Consumer Discretionary    $1,794  $1,847  $9,415  $9,316  $12,743  -85.92%
  Consumer Staples          $3,942  $4,627 $12,184 $11,629   $9,608  -58.97%
  Energy                    $7,953 $11,809 $16,128 $14,913  $16,869  -52.85%
  Financials                  $620  $4,292  $5,978  $5,782  $13,539  -95.42%
  Healthcare                $7,728  $5,453  $8,331 $10,415  $14,056  -45.02%
  Industrials               $2,358  $7,524 $12,038  $9,795  $13,624  -82.70%
  Information Technology    $6,103 $10,968 $21,996 $23,085  $25,254  -75.83%
  Materials                   $241  $1,433  $2,280  $1,059   $2,312  -89.59%
  Telecommunication Services   $29     $87  $1,092  $2,688   $5,759  -99.49%
  Utilities                    $14     $79    $269  $1,262     $685  -97.90%
  TOTAL                    $30,783 $48,117 $89,711 $89,944 $114,449  -73.10%



  STANDARD & POOR'S INDEX SERVICES
  S&P 500 20 LARGEST Q1 2009 BUYBACKS, $ MILLIONS
                                                                   Q4,'04-
  COMPANY                    SECTOR                  Q1,'09        Q1,'09

  Exxon Mobil Corp           Energy                  $7,852      $126,903
  Amgen Inc                  Healthcare              $1,997       $16,819
  Intern'l Business Machines Information Technology  $1,765       $47,945
  Philip Morris Int'l, Inc   Consumer Staples        $1,376        $6,632
  Oracle Corp                Information Technology  $1,360       $12,531
  Cisco Systems, Inc         Information Technology  $1,204       $36,458
  Procter & Gamble Co        Consumer Staples        $1,122       $43,224
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc        Consumer Staples          $886       $13,032
  Johnson & Johnson          Healthcare                $834       $21,930
  Abbott Laboratories        Healthcare                $823        $5,106
  McDonald's Corp            Consumer Discretionary    $813       $12,773
  Hewlett-Packard Co         Information Technology    $801       $33,839
  Unitedhealth Group, Inc    Healthcare                $689       $16,222
  WellPoint Inc              Healthcare                $681       $14,994
  Baxter Int'l Inc           Healthcare                $566        $5,559
  Lockheed Martin Corp       Industrials               $499        $9,251
  AutoZone Inc               Consumer Discretionary    $375        $3,263
  DIRECTV Group, Inc         Consumer Discretionary    $346        $6,542
  Zimmer Holdings Inc        Healthcare                $301        $2,418
  Raytheon Co                Industrials               $300        $4,430

  Top 20                                            $24,590      $439,870
  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 http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices.

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CONTACT: David R. Guarino, Communications, +1-212-438-1471,
dave_guarino@standardandpoors.com; or Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index
Analyst, +1-212-438-3916, howard_silverblatt@standardandpoors.com, both of
Standard & Poor's