Chinese investors dump U.S. stocks, but corporate buybacks offset losses . U.S. corporate stock repurchases to total $450 billion in 2016.

Marketwatch reports:

Last year, Chinese investors dumped nearly all the stocks that they had acquired over a span of seven years and are likely to remain cautious this year amid ongoing financial market volatility at home. But aggressive stock buybacks by U.S. companies flush with cash will likely offset the sting of waning Chinese appetite, according to Goldman Sachs.

China accounted for $96 billion in sales of U.S. stocks in 2015, wiping out almost all of the $97 billion purchased between 2008 and 2014, said David Kostin, chief U.S. strategist at Goldman Sachs, in a recent report. That is more than half of the $171 billion in U.S. equities sold by foreigners last year with much of the Chinese exodus occurring in the fourth quarter.

Imagine that.