Federal Reserve

Faceplant: Foreign Cenbank Holdings to May 16, 2012

Wall Street, we have a problem: USA TODAY (5/18 ’12): “Facebook shares jump, then fade as trading opens” (Google News still showed “Facebook shares jump as trading opens on Nasdaq market” at 16:15 GMT) GOOGLE NEWS TOP TEAZER: By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY Shares of Facebook jumped 13% to $43 on a frenzied first day of trading Friday, as investors stormed Wall Street to grab shares of the world’s leading social networking company. REVISED LEAD PARA AT 16:07 GMT: Facebook jumped an initial 13% to $43 as the stock opened for trading for the first time Friday morning. But almost…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to May 9, 2012

After a day of Whale Watching it’s simply awesome how the powers that be always seem to circle the wagons and keep the status quo together (how’s that for cliches? ).  Anyway, the Fed’s own holdings of MBS remained stalled, rising but by just $0.006 billion while foreign central bank holdings of US obligations swung to a $1B / day drain. This week’s Reuters report1 is, 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…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to May 2, 2012

  • Published: May 4th, 2012
  • Author:
  • Comments Closed

OK, how do you do it? With half a year to the election you’ve settled on Gov Coke vs Pres Pepsi and after a refreshing six months of full contact TASTES GREAT!! battling LESS FILLING!! you’re guaranteed of a result that changes, well, nothing.  Heck even if the recent mischief with delegates turns out to be the first faint sign of democracy waking from its coma you’ve got to remember that the real POTUS is still Doc Dudley and unless something totally unexpected happens (e.g. Four Sierra Papa falling over) West Egg shouldn’t even start hearing footsteps until about 2045….
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to April 25, 2012

  • Published: April 27th, 2012
  • Author:
  • Comments Closed

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS swung to a $7.565 billion shrinkage, reversing over a third of last time’s big increase. Meanwhile the foreign central banks’ treasuries number floated up to a fresh all time high while the agencies number relaxed just back to a level we haven’t seen since the Shoot the Moon era of May 2007. This week’s Reuters report1 is, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 Reuters is back to semi-automated neglect of their weekly weather report and this week there is a sca ttering o f randoml y…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to April 18, 2012

  • Published: April 20th, 2012
  • Author:
  • Comments Closed

The numbers for this week have the feel of a monster truck rally with large smelly vehicles spinning their wheels furiously while mostly going in circles without any particular direction indicated. The Fed’s own holdings of MBS surged up $18.568 billion, bringing the holdings of America’s largest (and most “solvent”) unintentional housing GSE back up to late October 2010 levels. Treasuries swung to a new all time record, but that improves on last August by less than $12B while the accelerating drop in agencies has now purged all the gains for the year in that number.  Indeed the net US…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to April 11, 2012

  • Published: April 13th, 2012
  • Author:
  • Comments Closed

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS was unchanged this week and rose, but by a mere $0.007 billion, the week before. Treasuries were flat, but gained a big hunk the previous week while agencies have been experiencing a modest sell-off. This week’s Reuters report1 is, 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 number slipped $0.348 billion after a big $16.349 billion buy the week before. Agencies continued its losing streak, down $3.738 billion this…
Read more…

Pink Slime is Nothing: Foreign Cenbank Holdings to March 28, 2012

Adulteration kills trust, although sometimes the time lag can be significant. Doom can hardly wait for the end-of-world interregnum when, as Tim’s last act as SecTreas, he tries to kick that cement filled can forward one last time with another Xmas eve press release. The Fed’s own holdings of MBS shrank again, this time by a hearty $14.474 billion and foreign central banks were buying treasuries at a bit above $1 billion / day. All’s right with the world, it would seem. This week’s Reuters report1 is, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to March 21, 2012

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS shrank, but just by $2.625 billion and foreign central banks’ aggregate holdings of US obligations swung to a half-$B-a-day selloff after last week’s big buying splurge. This week’s Reuters report1 is, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 This week we’ve got a byline, and from one of Reuters’ real reporters no less. Maybe he’ll actually read what he’s writing; at least he re-inserted the correct link to the NY Fed tables Here is Doom’s updated CSV version3 of the agencies and treasuries foreign central bank holdings…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to March 14, 2012

  • Published: March 16th, 2012
  • Author:
  • Comments Closed

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS surged up by $13.089 billion and foreign central banks’ aggregate holdings of US obligations surged up by … nearly the same amount? Difference is just $4 million, which is odd to say the least. Maybe Charlene from Obfuscation Services was off with the flu last week and a hint about the inner workings of the Fed’s black box was allowed to sneak out This week’s Reuters report1 is, 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…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to March 7, 2012

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS were stagnant, rising a mere $0.001 billion while the foreign central banks’ holdings of US obligations were flat. With the rest of the financial world in turmoil this looks like the data series that reality forgot This week’s Reuters report1 is, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 The orphan reference to the Fed tables is back in. Does Reuters actually read their own report? Here is Doom’s updated CSV version3 of the agencies and treasuries foreign central bank holdings data set. Treasuries swung to a small…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to February 29, 2012

  • Published: March 2nd, 2012
  • Author:
  • Comments Closed

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS fluctuated back down $12.250 billion, coming to rest at about where they were in mid-November last year. Foreign central banks’ holdings of US obligations didn’t move very much. This week’s Reuters report1 is, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 Since a human likely had to change the stock headline from “rose” to “fell” they may have seen that the link to the Fed tables was missing, and simply took out the reference. Is it my imagination, or are news organizations trying very hard in this era…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to February 22, 2012

  • Published: February 24th, 2012
  • Author:
  • Comments Closed

Another snoozer from our statistical friends at the FRBNY.  The Fed’s own holdings of MBS rose again by $5.239 billion, a bit less than a half of last week’s big add, and foreign cenbanks continued their counter-cyclical growth in holdings of US obligations. This week’s Reuters report1 is, 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. Treasuries winning streak continues, but at a radically reduced $2.095 billion this week.  Interestingly, the yellow line has been fluctuating in…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to February 15, 2012

Bloomberg (2/17 ’12): “Record $6 Trillion of Fake U.S. Bonds Seized” Italian anti-mafia prosecutors said they seized a record $6 trillion of allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds, an amount that’s almost half of the U.S.’s public debt. OK, enough fun, as Doom returns to the real fake bonds The “Fred” wolfed down $11.776 billion of new MBS holdings and foreign central banks in the aggregate consumed lots of new US obligations. Weird. This week’s Reuters report1 is, 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…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to February 8, 2012

  • Published: February 10th, 2012
  • Author:
  • Comments Closed

Reuters’ weather report is finally back for the first time since December, although the anonymous reporter has again lost the link to the NY Fed tables. Fed’s own MBS holdings grew a tiny $0.013 billion and foreign central banks’ holdings of agencies were flat. On the other hand, the treasuries number surged, leading Igor to wonder idly how much of the buy might have come out of Iranian official assets This week’s Reuters report1 is, as semi-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…
Read more…

Foreign Cenbank Holdings to February 1, 2012

Oh dear, somebody tell Oda’s people to break out the crank-o-sign machine. Looks like we’re going to need a few more back-dated permissions, and it’s not just Kenney running amok this time. Wowsers, hadn’t been following the antics of the Thirteenth District / FRBO (you can say that again ) for a while, but yesterday the amero gap closed to just -4 bips. And you thought Keystone was dead, Igor: bwahaha! Fed’s own MBS holdings grew a meaningless $0.388 billion while the foreign cenbanks meekly swallowed nearly $1B / day of assorted US obligations. A real snoozer. December 29th Reuters…
Read more…

Page 1 of 2212345»1020...Last »