On Monday, the funds rate was trading at 2.25 per cent, at the top of its current range. In an effort to move it back into the current range of 2 per cent to 2.25 per cent, the New York Fed announced Monday it planned to conduct a repurchase operation for up to US$75b on Tuesday morning.
The Fed's operation, which ended up being for US$53b, was aimed at keeping the Fed's policy rate from trading outside of its range.
Analysts were not certain what had caused higher demands for repurchase agreements to push the trading range higher but said it did not seem to be signaling any fundamental problem with credit markets and could have been tied to an adverse reaction to a jump in oil prices after Saudi Arabia's production facilities were attacked over the weekend.
"This is a technical exercise and has no implications for Fed policy at all," said economist David Jones, the author of four books on the Federal Reserve.
- AP