Corporate America puts $2 trillion in bank in run-up to election

Made stingy by the pandemic and gun-shy by the election, US companies have reconsidered spending plans on everything from shareholders to factories. As a result, cash is pooling on balance sheets, swelling rainy day funds to an unprecedented $2 trillion.

While analysts have a million ways to spend it, the market’s preference is clear: don’t. Doing so has been bad for your stock. 

Companies laying out the most for share repurchases and capital investments have trailed the S&P 500 since its March low, 

according to the data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group and Bloomberg. Firms with sturdier finances beat weaker ones by almost