The Fed’s own MBS holdings rose by a relatively modest $13.878 billion, but this made the total Fed holdings of MBS larger than the total reported for foreign central banks, who recorded a very small reduction. Meanwhile after four weeks of quiet, and while the equity people were throwing a party over Dow 10k, the treasuries number surged by the 5th biggest amount ever. The amount of volatility in that number is becoming a little comical.
This week’s Reuters report1 came in with a huge jolt to the treasuries number and the 3rd consecutive sub-billion move in agencies. The report was, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 Here is Doom’s updated CSV version3 of the agencies and treasuries foreign central bank holdings data set.
The treasuries buy streaked up to a whopping $28.706, well up the table of Doom’s Top 10.
Agencies stalled completely, dropping a mere $0.070 billion.
The net change of US obligations was $28.636 billion, good enough to support US debt for a whole month, which is good because there hasn’t been much buying since the even bigger surge 5 weeks ago.
Agencies stayed still while treasuries flew up, so Twist’s ratios graphs trended down.
The treasuries line actually went up on the Setser 52-week chart, even though we’re on the anniversary of a strong buy, and the agencies line surged up since standing still’s a lot better than what was happening to Agency Debt a year ago.
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Notes and References
[1]: "Foreign c.banks’ Treasury holdings jump in wk – Fed", by Burton Frierson, October 22, 2009.
[2]: "H.4.1 Factors Affecting Reserve Balances", Federal Reserve Statistical Release (weekly), Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
[3]: The updated data set as a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file is here.
