Cash is king in hard times. But now that the economy seems to be bottoming out, more companies are faced with some big decisions about how to deploy their cash, which spells good news for investment bankers and investors. By one estimate (from JPMorgan JPM), Standard & Poor's 500 companies are sitting on $3.2 trillion in cash. Excluding the financial sector, the cash totals $1.1 trillion, or 11 percent of assets, a 60-year high and well above the long-term average of 8 percent, reports Reuters.

How will they put that to use? Authorized share buybacks hit $13.2 billion toward the end of February, compared with $1.07 billion a year ago. We're seeing more companies announce share repurchase programs daily. This augurs well for more capital spending, and of course, more deals. Many are expecting a return to cash-driven, strategic deals like Coca-Cola's deal to buy the North American operations of its top bottler for about $13 billion. Apple, with $40 billion in cash, has said it's more likely to wait for a deal than to buy back stock or raise dividends. 

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