Buyback nation: stock purchases feed bull run By: CNBC.com News December 11, 2013 at 09:43 AM EST Mastercard's stock purchase highlights one of the main drivers of the stock rally in the last few years: strong buybacks and dividend hikes. Read More >> Related Stocks: Apple Autohome Inc ADR Cheniere Energy Cheniere Energy Partners LP Halliburton Co Johnson & Johnson MasterCard Pfizer Qualcomm, Inc. Valero Energy