The Fed's balance sheet rose to $7.1 trillion as of this week, having now committed a record $2.2 trillion in quantitative easing purchases since chair Jerome Powell's pledge to buy unlimited Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities in March.
Watch this space: The massive increase comes despite the fact that many of the central bank's special purpose vehicles set up to buy corporate bonds and loan to businesses are not yet operational.
Details: The Fed's Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility has so far purchased only investment grade bond ETFs, with holdings rising to $35 billion this week from just $1.8 billion last week, analysts at TD Securities note.
- The Commercial Paper Funding Facility usage rose to $13 billion from $4 billion.
What's next: Goldman Sachs analysts expect the Fed to soon move to "a steady pace" of roughly $80 billion to $120 billion of Treasuries and $25 billion to $35 billion of MBS purchases per month, as well as instituting yield curve control for shorted-dated Treasuries.
Go deeper: The Fed's coronavirus response could have unintended results
