Stand Strong With the Buyback Kings

This column was originally published on RealMoney on May 22 at 5:27 p.m. EDT. It's being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers.

Citigroup(C Quote), ExxonMobil(XOM Quote), United Technologies(UTX Quote) and Bank of America(BAC Quote) all worked well today.

One might ask what these companies have in common. I would tell you one word: buybacks. They, along with Sears Holdings(SHLD Quote), which didn't do badly considering the Lowe's(LOW Quote) debacle and last week's strength -- hold in better than most stocks I follow.

The buyback as a method of cash deployment doesn't work that well in a non-volatile stock market. There are always buyers somewhere in a decline in a non-volatile market. ...