Latest news with #quantitativeTightening
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Wall Street pushes out end of Fed balance sheet wind-down, minutes show
NEW YORK, July 9 (Reuters) - Financial market participants have pushed out yet again the end date for the effort to shrink the size of the Federal Reserve's large balance sheet, the minutes of the U.S. central bank's June 17-18 policy meeting showed on Wednesday. The drawdown of the Fed's stock of bonds is now expected to stop in February when the balance sheet stands at $6.2 trillion, big banks and money funds told the U.S. central bank ahead of last month's policy meeting, the minutes noted. That represents a small shift from what survey respondents said ahead of the Fed's policy meeting in early May, when they eyed a January end date, and $6.125 trillion in total holdings. The Fed has been shrinking the size of its balance sheet since the summer of 2022 in an effort referred to as quantitative tightening, or QT. The central bank has allowed set amounts of bonds it bought during the COVID-19 pandemic to mature and not be replaced, in an effort that so far has taken the overall stock of cash and bonds it holds from a record $9 trillion to the current level of $6.7 trillion. The Fed more than doubled its bond holdings to stabilize markets and then provide stimulus to the economy beyond what could be delivered by near-zero short-term rates. The QT program has been aimed at removing excess levels of liquidity from the market as part of a broader monetary policy normalization, but there's been ongoing uncertainty when that process could end, and at what level of holdings the Fed would be able to rest at. For some time, market participants have expected the Fed to stop QT this year. But earlier in 2025 the Fed slowed QT in order to reduce the risk of market disruptions while the Treasury Department took action to deal with government financing needs during wrangling over the government's official borrowing limit and its broader budget needs. Much of that uncertainty was resolved last week with the passage of a Trump administration budget bill that lifted the borrowing cap, which will allow the Treasury to sell more debt. Increased debt sales will cut into the reserve levels the Fed has been trying to shrink with QT. The reserves now stand at around $3.3 trillion, a level that's been steady for some time. The minutes released on Wednesday said market participants told the Fed they see reserves dipping to $2.9 trillion due to QT. Respondents also said the Fed's reverse repo facility, which held $227 billion on Wednesday, should move to a "low" level.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Wall Street pushes out end of Fed balance sheet wind-down, minutes show
By Michael S. Derby NEW YORK (Reuters) -Financial market participants have pushed out yet again the end date for the effort to shrink the size of the Federal Reserve's large balance sheet, the minutes of the U.S. central bank's June 17-18 policy meeting showed on Wednesday. The drawdown of the Fed's stock of bonds is now expected to stop in February when the balance sheet stands at $6.2 trillion, big banks and money funds told the U.S. central bank ahead of last month's policy meeting, the minutes noted. That represents a small shift from what survey respondents said ahead of the Fed's policy meeting in early May, when they eyed a January end date, and $6.125 trillion in total holdings. The Fed has been shrinking the size of its balance sheet since the summer of 2022 in an effort referred to as quantitative tightening, or QT. The central bank has allowed set amounts of bonds it bought during the COVID-19 pandemic to mature and not be replaced, in an effort that so far has taken the overall stock of cash and bonds it holds from a record $9 trillion to the current level of $6.7 trillion. The Fed more than doubled its bond holdings to stabilize markets and then provide stimulus to the economy beyond what could be delivered by near-zero short-term rates. The QT program has been aimed at removing excess levels of liquidity from the market as part of a broader monetary policy normalization, but there's been ongoing uncertainty when that process could end, and at what level of holdings the Fed would be able to rest at. For some time, market participants have expected the Fed to stop QT this year. But earlier in 2025 the Fed slowed QT in order to reduce the risk of market disruptions while the Treasury Department took action to deal with government financing needs during wrangling over the government's official borrowing limit and its broader budget needs. Much of that uncertainty was resolved last week with the passage of a Trump administration budget bill that lifted the borrowing cap, which will allow the Treasury to sell more debt. Increased debt sales will cut into the reserve levels the Fed has been trying to shrink with QT. The reserves now stand at around $3.3 trillion, a level that's been steady for some time. The minutes released on Wednesday said market participants told the Fed they see reserves dipping to $2.9 trillion due to QT. Respondents also said the Fed's reverse repo facility, which held $227 billion on Wednesday, should move to a "low" level.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Britain remains trapped in poor economic policy
Randeep Ramesh certainly tackles a worthwhile and complex modern economic policy conundrum (Labour could find the money it wants without raising taxes. This is austerity by amnesia, 29 June). But his opinion that the Bank of England should simply hand over the cash proceeds from quantitative tightening (QT) and that central bank independence is somehow partly responsible for Britain's economic woes, are misguided. Central bank independence was hard-won and has largely proven a resounding success in the developed world for more than 30 years. Allowing a central bank to hand over substantial moneys from QT revenues to the Treasury would be a recipe for disaster, against the spirit if not the letter of the law, as well as a dangerous precedent. More broadly, there is merit in Ramesh's push to coordinate fiscal and monetary policy better. Neither the Treasury nor the Bank are immune to criticism in their failures to act earlier to stave off the inevitable post-Covid inflation spike by raising rates more quickly in late 2021-early 2022, before the Ukraine war. Equally, the Treasury may have acted in a more nuanced fashion in removing the government-led stimulus NewmanLondon A big thank you to Randeep Ramesh for explaining the implications of quantitative easing (QE) and QT. This insane orthodoxy simply gives public money to banks and the City. In 2007-08, the then Bank governor, Mervyn King, pontificated about 'moral hazards' for banks with regard to their risky behaviour, but then it was the public purse that took the hit from the crash and has been picking up the tab ever since. It is a parasitic system geared to the benefit of the City and the oligarchy. Gordon Brown's granting of independence to the Bank was a mistake, driven by his anxiety to reassure the City that Labour was not a threat. Running the economy is profoundly political and ideological, and the notion that only state technocrats can be trusted with monetary policy is nonsense. Rachel Reeves is making the same mistake by trying to fit her spending to Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predictions. The creation of the OBR was simply a George Osborne wheeze to help justify his disastrous austerity policy, which Reeves is in danger of WoodKidlington, Oxfordshire Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Zawya
02-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Sterling nudges lower but still near multi-year highs, looking past UK politics
The pound eased a touch against the dollar on Wednesday but held near its near-four-year top hit the previous day, one of the many beneficiaries of the greenback's recent weakness. Investors by and large looked through political drama in Britain where Prime Minister Kier Starmer suffered the largest parliamentary rebellion of his premiership even as he was forced to back down on key parts of a benefit-cutting package. Markets this week were more focused on hints from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey on Tuesday that the central bank could change the BoE's quantitative tightening process - the pace of which, analysts say, has been weighing on longer dated government bonds known as gilts. "The gilt market did not react negatively to the news from the Commons, at least partly thanks to Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey hinting at a potentially slowing quantitative tightening to give some relief to back-end liquidity. That may have helped shield sterling, too," said Francesco Pesole, currency analyst at ING, in a note. Sterling was last down 0.35% on the dollar, largely moving in line with peers, as the dollar's recent decline paused for breath. The pound hit $1.3787 on Tuesday, its highest since autumn 2021. Other European currencies such as the euro and Swiss franc are also at their strongest in years. Sterling was also a touch weaker on the euro, which was up 0.15% at 85.98 pence, an over two-month high. There is little British economic data expected for the rest of the day, though policy maker Alan Taylor will speak at the ECB's central bank conference at Sintra, Portugal. Taylor voted for a rate cut at the central bank's last meeting in June, when the rate-setting monetary policy committee voted to keep rates steady. Market pricing indicates a good chance of a BoE rate cut at their meeting next month, though it is not yet fully priced in. (Reporting by Alun John Editing by Peter Graff)
Bloomberg
01-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
BOE Governor Bailey Hints at Slowing Pace of QT Bond Sales
The Bank of England is looking at the possibility of offloading fewer government bonds over the coming year than the current £100 billion ($138 billion) annual run-off rate amid questions about market demand for longer-dated government debt, Governor Andrew Bailey said. Asked by CNBC in an interview whether the BOE's Monetary Policy Committee is thinking about reducing the pace of quantitative tightening, Bailey said Tuesday it was a 'live decision' and all options are 'on the table.'
