IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fednsr/93540.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Federal Reserve’s Market Functioning Purchases

Author

Abstract

In March 2020, massive customer selling of U.S. Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed dealers’ capacity to intermediate trades, contributing to a marked deterioration of market functioning. The Federal Reserve promptly took numerous steps to address the market disruptions, including the initiation of market functioning purchases of Treasury securities and agency MBS. Purchases quickly expanded to over $100 billion per day as the Fed announced plans to buy securities “in the amounts needed” to support market functioning and the effective transmission of monetary policy. Market liquidity improved steadily after mid-March, suggesting that the Fed’s efforts were effective, and the security purchases were scaled back accordingly.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael J. Fleming & Haoyang Liu & Rich Podjasek & Jake Schurmeier, 2021. "The Federal Reserve’s Market Functioning Purchases," Staff Reports 998, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:93540
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr998.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr998.html
    File Function: Summary
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorie Logan, 2020. "The Federal Reserve’s Market Functioning Purchases: From Supporting to Sustaining," Speech 88384, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    2. Andreas Fuster & Stephanie H. Lo & Paul S. Willen, 2024. "The Time‐Varying Price of Financial Intermediation in the Mortgage Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 79(4), pages 2553-2602, August.
    3. Tobias Adrian & Michael J. Fleming & Jonathan Goldberg & Morgan Lewis & Fabio M. Natalucci & Jason J. Wu, 2013. "Dealer Balance Sheet Capacity and Market Liquidity during the 2013 Selloff in Fixed Income Markets," FEDS Notes 2013-10-16, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. James Vickery & Joshua Wright, 2013. "TBA trading and liquidity in the agency MBS market," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 19(May), pages 1-18.
    5. Michael J. Fleming, 2020. "Treasury Market Liquidity and the Federal Reserve during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Liberty Street Economics 20200529a, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    6. Joseph E. Gagnon & Matthew Raskin & Julie Remache & Brian P. Sack, 2011. "Large-scale asset purchases by the Federal Reserve: did they work?," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 17(May), pages 41-59.
    7. Michael J. Fleming & Francisco Ruela, 2020. "Treasury Market Liquidity during the COVID-19 Crisis," Liberty Street Economics 20200417, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    8. Andreas Schrimpf & Hyun Song Shin & Vladyslav Sushko, 2020. "Leverage and margin spirals in fixed income markets during the Covid-19 crisis," BIS Bulletins 2, Bank for International Settlements.
    9. Bryan J. Noeth & Rajdeep Sengupta, 2010. "Flight to safety and U.S. Treasury securities," The Regional Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jul, pages 18-19.
    10. Kenneth D. Garbade & Frank M. Keane, 2020. "Market Function Purchases by the Federal Reserve," Liberty Street Economics 20200820, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    11. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    12. Jiakai Chen & Haoyang Liu & David Rubio & Asani Sarkar & Zhaogang Song, 2020. "MBS Market Dysfunctions in the Time of COVID-19," Liberty Street Economics 20200717, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    13. Richard H. Clarida & Burcu Duygan-Bump & Chiara Scotti, 2021. "The COVID-19 Crisis and the Federal Reserve's Policy Response," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-035, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Julia Gouny & Haoyang Liu & Woojung Park, 2020. "Federal Reserve Agency CMBS Purchases," Liberty Street Economics 20200716, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    15. Pengjie Gao & Paul Schultz & Zhaogang Song, 2017. "Liquidity in a Market for Unique Assets: Specified Pool and To-Be-Announced Trading in the Mortgage-Backed Securities Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 1119-1170, June.
    16. Daniel Barth & R. Jay Kahn, 2021. "Hedge Funds and the Treasury Cash-Futures Disconnect," Working Papers 21-01, Office of Financial Research, US Department of the Treasury.
    17. Michael J. Fleming & Asani Sarkar & Peter Van Tassel, 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Fed’s Response," Liberty Street Economics 20200415, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    18. Haoyang Liu & Zhaogang Song & James Vickery, 2021. "Defragmenting Markets: Evidence from Agency MBS," Working Papers 21-25, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    19. Anna Kovner & Antoine Martin, 2020. "The Official Sector’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic and Moral Hazard," Liberty Street Economics 20200924, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    20. James Collin Harkrader & Michael Puglia, 2020. "Principal Trading Firm Activity in Treasury Cash Markets," FEDS Notes 2020-08-04, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    21. Lorie Logan, 2020. "Treasury Market Liquidity and Early Lessons from the Pandemic Shock," Speech 88983, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas M. Eisenbach & Gregory Phelan, 2022. "Fragility of Safe Asset Markets," Staff Reports 1026, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jordan Barone & Alain P. Chaboud & Adam Copeland & Cullen Kavoussi & Frank M. Keane & Seth Searls, 2023. "The Global Dash for Cash: Why Sovereign Bond Market Functioning Varied across Jurisdictions in March 2020," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 29(3), pages 1-29, December.
    2. Huh, Yesol & Kim, You Suk, 2023. "Cheapest-to-deliver pricing, optimal MBS securitization, and welfare implications," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 68-93.
    3. Egemen Eren & Philip Wooldridge, 2021. "Non-bank financial institutions and the functioning of government bond markets," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 119.
    4. Andreas Fuster & David Lucca & James Vickery, 2023. "Mortgage-backed securities," Chapters, in: Refet S. Gürkaynak & Jonathan H. Wright (ed.), Research Handbook of Financial Markets, chapter 15, pages 331-357, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. He, Zhiguo & Nagel, Stefan & Song, Zhaogang, 2022. "Treasury inconvenience yields during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 57-79.
    6. Haoyang Liu & Zhaogang Song & James Vickery, 2021. "Defragmenting Markets: Evidence from Agency MBS," Staff Reports 965, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    7. Jieun Lee, 2023. "Dollar and government bond liquidity: evidence from Korea," BIS Working Papers 1145, Bank for International Settlements.
    8. Thomas M. Eisenbach & Gregory Phelan, 2022. "Fragility of Safe Asset Markets," Staff Reports 1026, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    9. Mahyar Kargar & Benjamin Lester & David Lindsay & Shuo Liu & Pierre-Olivier Weill & Diego Zúñiga, 2021. "Corporate Bond Liquidity during the COVID-19 Crisis [The day coronavirus nearly broke the financial markets]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5352-5401.
    10. Onofrio Panzarino, 2023. "Investor behavior under market stress:evidence from the Italian sovereign bond market," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 33, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    11. Jiakai Chen & Haoyang Liu & Asani Sarkar & Zhaogang Song, 2020. "Dealers and the Dealer of Last Resort: Evidence from the Agency MBS Markets in the COVID-19 Crisis," Staff Reports 933, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    12. Matthias Thiemann, 2021. "La relation asymétrique des banques centrales au financement de marché : une évaluation des implications pour la stabilité financière à la lumière des évènements lés à la Covid," Post-Print hal-03622943, HAL.
    13. Matthias Thiemann, 2021. "La relation asymétrique des banques centrales au financement de marché : une évaluation des implications pour la stabilité financière à la lumière des évènements lés à la Covid," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03622943, HAL.
    14. Andreas Fuster & Aurel Hizmo & Lauren Lambie-Hanson & James Vickery & Paul S. Willen, 2021. "How Resilient Is Mortgage Credit Supply? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 28843, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Aytek Malkhozov & Philippe Mueller & Andrea Vedolin & Gyuri Venter, 2016. "Mortgage Risk and the Yield Curve," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(5), pages 1220-1253.
    16. Nicola Fusari & Wei Li & Haoyang Liu & Zhaogang Song, 2022. "Asset Pricing with Cohort‐Based Trading in MBS Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(6), pages 3249-3287, December.
    17. Erik Vogt & Michael Fleming & Or Shachar & Tobias Adrian, 2017. "Market Liquidity After the Financial Crisis," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 43-83, November.
    18. Vassilios G. Papavassilioua & Fan Dora Xiab, 2024. "Liquidity in the euro-area sovereign bond market during the “dash for cash” driven by the COVID-19 crisis," Working Papers 202406, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    19. Ippolito, Filippo & Ozdagli, Ali K. & Perez-Orive, Ander, 2018. "The transmission of monetary policy through bank lending: The floating rate channel," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 49-71.
    20. Scheicher, Martin, 2023. "Intermediation in US and EU bond and swap markets: stylised facts, trends and impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis in March 2020," ESRB Occasional Paper Series 24, European Systemic Risk Board.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Federal Reserve; asset purchases; Treasury securities; agency mortgage-backed securities; COVID-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fednsr:93540. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gabriella Bucciarelli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbnyus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.