CHART UPDATE: Fed's balance sheet hits record high in latest week on new bond purchases - Fed Weekly Report
After flattening out, it headed higher 8 straight weeks with QE2, until dipping just slightly last week, and then exploding to a new, all-time record high this week.
When the Fed wants to sell MBS and other securities, who's gonna buy?
The rest of the Fed's weekly report is inside, including foreign holdings.
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Full Weekly Fed Report Is HERE - Including Reports From Past Weeks
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/
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(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve's balance sheet rose to a new high in the latest week as the U.S. central bank increased its holdings of Treasury securities as part of its $600 billion quantitative easing program, Fed data released on Thursday showed.
The balance sheet -- a broad gauge of Fed lending to the financial system -- expanded to $2.451 trillion in the week ended Jan. 12 from $2.418 trillion the prior week.
The central bank's holdings of U.S. government securities totaled $1.062 trillion on Wednesday, up from $1.031 trillion last week.
Meanwhile, the Fed's overnight direct loans to credit-worthy banks via its discount window averaged $23 million a day in the week ended Wednesday, less than the $100 million daily pace last week.
Continue reading at Reuters...
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More Fed headlines...
Foreign central banks' U.S. debt holdings fall - Fed
Jan 13 (Reuters) - Foreign central banks' overall holdings of U.S. marketable securities at the Federal Reserve fell in the latest week, data from the U.S. central bank showed on Thursday. The Fed said its holdings of U.S. securities kept for overseas central banks fell $8.99 billion in the week ended Jan. 12 to $3.346 trillion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSNLLDCE7T420110113
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Swaps with foreign cenbanks total $70 mln - NY Fed
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve in the latest week provided $70 million of liquidity to the European Central Bank via its swap lines for foreign central banks, the New York Fed said on Thursday. The ECB was the sole institution to tap the swap lines in the week ended Jan. 12, swapping the full amount. The terms for the ECB swap were 7 days at 1.18 percent, the New York Fed added.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN139863820110113
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Full Weekly Fed Report Is HERE - Including Reports From Past Weeks
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/
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Answer this important question Bernanke:
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More charts:
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Slideshows...
Jan 18, 2011 at 2:21 PM
Reader Comments (8)
source...
last week's numbers...
Jan 13 (Reuters) - Foreign central banks' overall holdings of U.S. marketable securities at the Federal Reserve fell in the latest week, data from the U.S. central bank showed on Thursday. The Fed said its holdings of U.S. securities kept for overseas central banks fell $8.99 billion in the week ended Jan. 12 to $3.346 trillion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSNLLDCE7T420110113
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve in the latest week provided $70 million of liquidity to the European Central Bank via its swap lines for foreign central banks, the New York Fed said on Thursday. The ECB was the sole institution to tap the swap lines in the week ended Jan. 12, swapping the full amount. The terms for the ECB swap were 7 days at 1.18 percent, the New York Fed added.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN139863820110113
(Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve said on Monday it will begin next week to reduce the tracking numbers of the mortgage bonds the U.S. central bank holds in its portfolio, in an attempt to reduce administrative costs.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1011752920110110
Citigroup: $2.2T
Merrill Lynch: $2.1T
Morgan Stanley: $2.0T
Bank of America: $1.1T
Bear Stearns (?!): $960B
Goldman Sachs: $620B
JP Morgan Chase: $260B
Wells Fargo: $150B
http://www.startribune.com/business/111164569.html
Is the Fed's balance sheet not affected by emergency lending? I ask because Bear Stearns went belly-up in March 2008, well before the massive spike upward shown in the first graph of this post.