The Globe and Mail attempts to identify companies in the best position to spend their cash in its Tuesday, July 1, edition. The Globe's Tim Shufelt writes in the Number Cruncher column that coinciding with a rebound in mergers and acquisitions in Canada and the United States, recent information shows that corporate cash balances have begun to shrink. According to FactSet, cash and short-term investment balances at S&P 500 companies declined sequentially, by 4.7 per cent, in the first quarter for the first time in seven quarters. In Canada corporate thrift is beginning to wane. Cash balances fell in the first quarter for the first time in a year, dipping to $464-billion. Mr. Shufelt only considered companies with total cash and near-cash items of at least $200-million. He also looked for companies with both the means and the inclination to spend. He capped debt-to-equity ratios at 60 per cent, earnings had to be positive in the past fiscal year and the average return on equity over the past five years had to be higher than 10 per cent. Companies with cash ready to be spent are Great-West Lifeco, Husky Energy, Magna International, Nordion, E-L Financial and Dominion Diamond.