Why would buying back shares (edit) increase the stock price in this case? There are so many shares floating around out there it's hard to imagine that 10-20% would really affect this all that much as we stand 'today'. Pull out 10-20% of something like AA or GOOG and see what happens because they aren't suffering with vague PR's and lake of financials. Hence, weak hands get nervous when they hear a preponderance of people talking smack every day.