Airlines and Boeing want a bailout but look how much theyve spent on stock buybacks

Then again, Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett has shown during down markets that the extra cash can be put to work by scooping up other companies’ shares at low prices, or making special, lucrative preferred-stock deals, such as the one Berkshire did with Goldman Sachs GS-2.01%  during the 2008 financial crisis. Berkshire had $125 billion in cash and short-term investments in U.S. Treasury bills as of Dec. 31.

Nobody could have predicted the coronavirus outbreak, but it is having a tremendous effect on Apple AAPL+2.32% not only because most of its stores are closed, but because iPhones are assembled at Foxconn’s TW:2354+7.14%  factories in China. But Apple has also been criticized for holding too much cash. It had $39.7 billion in cash, plus $67.4 billion in “marketable securities” as of Dec. 28. The extra cash will serve the company well during a massive decline in sales.