Commercial Paper.... Release the Hounds

Bloomberg (hat tip Naked Capitalism):

Sales of longer-term commercial paper soared 10-fold after the Federal Reserve began buying the corporate IOUs, a sign that the central bank's efforts toward unlocking the market may be working.

Companies yesterday sold 1,511 issues totaling a record $67.1 billion of the debt due in more than 80 days, compared with a daily average of 340 issues valued at $6.7 billion last week, according to Fed data. The central bank probably absorbed about $60 billion of the total, said Adolfo Laurenti, a senior economist at Mesirow Financial Inc.

Source: Federal Reserve

Total Borrowings of Depository Institutions

The Update:

• Extension of the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) and the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF) through January 30, 2009.

• The introduction of auctions of options on $50 billion of draws on the TSLF.

• The introduction of 84-day Term Auction Facility (TAF) loans as a complement to 28-day TAF loans.

• An increase in the Federal Reserve's swap line with the European Central Bank to $55 billion from $50 billion.

The Good:

Michael Feroli, U.S. economist with JPMorgan in New York added: “more and more banks are trying to take advantage of the pure economic advantage of borrowing at a cheap rate and you are seeing a gradual fading away of the stigma of using the discount window.”

The Bad:

U.S. banks' direct primary credit borrowing from the Federal Reserve rose to a record high in the latest week. Banks primary credit borrowings averaged $17.45 billion per day in the latest week, up from the previous record set last week of $16.38 billion, the Fed said on Thursday.

On the day of July 30, banks' primary credit borrowings inched lower to $17.38 billion, down from $17.68 billion on July 23. Banks' overall discount window borrowings averaged $17.64 billion per day in the week ended July 23, up from an average of $16.51 billion per day the week before. Dealers borrowed $3 billion average per day from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility in the latest week after not borrowing at all the week before.