Fed Open Market Committee Day - April 30 , 2014 ( but wondering what was discussed during the Fed's apparent " expedited emergency meeting between 4 Fed Governors ) and various manipulations ( apart from FOMC Day ) Fed Reverse Repo ( window dressing manipulation ) rises to 208 billion ( when will it hit a trillion ) ........ Fed Cuts May POMO To Only $24 Billion From $30 Billion ( money for nothing Fed manipulation ) ........ ......

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-30/month-end-window-dressing-sends-fed-reverse-repo-usage-208-billion-second-highest-ev

Month-End Window Dressing Sends Fed Reverse Repo Usage To $208 Billion: Second Highest Ever

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/30/2014 15:50 -0400

• Reverse Repo

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We can finally close the book on the "mystery" (if there ever was one) behind the Fed's fixed-rate reverse repo operation.

Yesterday, when we noted that the total notional of the most recent 1 Day reverse repo operation was a whopping $183.3 billion, we made a modest prediction, knowing full well that today would be April 30, better known as month end, and even better known as a time when every bank has some huge, undercapitalized windows to dress.

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Reverse Repo surges to $183.3 billion. Must be almost month end window dressing time - tomorrow should be well over $200 BN

1:18 PM - 29 Apr 2014

It was, indeed, well over $200 BN. In fact, it was $208 billion, the second highest ever.

And sure enough, watch it crash to just over $100 billion tomorrow, now that a new month will have started and banks no longer need to appear quite so healthy.

So step aside any sophisticated claims that the Fed's reverse repo is a means to extract liquidity when the time to raise rates finally comes: all this latest "tool" in the Fed's arsenal is, is nothing more than a Fed-mandated and endorsed mechanism with which the banks can fool regulators and investors that they are in a far healthier condition than they really are. 

And judging by the humiliating episode involving Bank of America's made up numbers that punked the Fed into believing America's most insolvent TBTF bank was healthy enough to give be billions to investors, one of the parties most "confused" by what the RRP does, is the Fed itself.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-30/fed-cuts-may-pomo-only-24-billion-30-billion

Fed Cuts May POMO To Only $24 Billion From $30 Billion

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/30/2014 15:15 -0400

• POMO
 
• POMO

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One hour after announcing that the Fed would, as expected, cut its monthly Treasury purchases, aka stock market liquidity injections to $25 billion (and $20 billion in MBS), the NY Fed released its POMO schedule for the month of May. The key highlights:

• "The Desk plans to purchase approximately $24 billion in Treasury securities over the month of May. This amount is approximately $1 billion less than the stated pace of $25 billion per month, given that purchases conducted in April exceeded the target by approximately $1 billion."
• There will be "only" 16 POMO days, down from the usual 18.
• The largest POMO days will be Monday May 12, when the Fed will inject $2.25-$3.0 billion into the market and Thursday, May 29, when another $2.50-$3.25 billion will be allocated to stocks.
• There will be no POMO on Wednesday May 7, Thursday May 15, and Wednesday May 26. Needless to say, for those so inclined, these may be the better shorting entry points.

At this pace POMO will be over by December, although expect the market to enter full freakout mode when the Fed is only monetizing a paltry $10-15 billion on about half the days of the month.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-30/fed-tapers-10-billion-says-economy-consumer-demand-picked

Fed Tapers $10 Billion, Says Economy, Consumer Demand "Picked Up"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/30/2014 14:02 -0400

• Bond
 
• Reality
 
• recovery

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Despite dismal data (or the potential for great escape velocity is around the corner data), major event risks, and a Treasury market that just won't buy the dream of recovery that they are selling; the Fed stuck to its tapering guns... with a consensus $10bn taper...

• *FED TAPERS BOND BUYING TO $45 BLN MONTHLY PACE FROM $55 BLN
• *FED: ECONOMY PICKED UP, CONSUMER DEMAND RISING `MORE QUICKLY'

Shifting from "the economy slowed due to weather..." to "consumer spending is rising more quickly" the Fed is in full consensus "everything's gonna be alright " mode.This leaves the Fed buying $25bn a month of Treasuries and $20bn of MBS each month and facing the tough reality that their trillions did not generate enough momentum in the US economy to overcome some snow.

Perhaps more curiously, Kocherlakota did not dissent this time around. Looks like continued tapering is no longer hawkish unlike... continued tapering?

Pre-FOMC: S&P Futs 1874, 10Y 2.66%, EURUSD 1.3865, Gold $1295

Here is the Fed blaming, what else, the weather:

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March indicates that growth in economic activity has picked up recently, after having slowed sharply during the winter in part because of adverse weather conditions

And here is the full redline comparison:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-30/why-did-fed-hold-emergency-meeting-yesterday

Why Did The Fed Hold An Emergency Meeting Yesterday?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/30/2014 10:54 -0400

• Monetary Policy

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Everyone knows that the FOMC announcement, due today at 2 pm, will be the culmination of an orderly, traditional 2-day meeting which started yesterday, April 29.

What few know, however, is that in addition to the generic FOMC meeting which started yesterday at 10:30 am, at about the same time, the Fed also held an "expedited" emergency meeting between the four board governors Yellen, Tarullo, Stein, and Powell.

As the WSJ adds, "The four members of the board met to discuss "medium-term monetary policy issues," according to a meeting notice posted on the Fed's website.... A Fed spokesman declined to say if the two meetings were combined, or how long the board meeting lasted." The WSJ also notes that the "last time the Fed board met to discuss "medium-term monetary policy issues" was on April 26, 2011, according to analysts at BNP Paribas."

The notice:

So what was discussed? We won't know because the "meeting was closed to public observation by Order of the Board of Governors because the matters fall under exemption(s) 9(A)(i) of the Government in the Sunshine Act (5 U.S.C. Section 552b(c)), and it was determined that the public interest did not require opening the meeting."

Ironic, because nothing the Fed does is in the public interest. Or, to be specific, 99% of the public...