This is probably not what the market wanted this Friday.
Adding to the back-and-forth uncertainty of the Irish will-they-or-won’t-they-get-a-bailout spiel — CNBC is reporting that the Federal Reserve has experienced a technical glitch in its inaugural QE2 operation scheduled for this Friday.
Flashes via Bloomberg:
*FED DELAYS TREASURY BUYING DUE TO TECHNICAL GLITCH: CNBC
*FED EXTENDS TREASURY BUYING TO 11:30 A.M., CNBC SAYS
The US central bank was planning to buyback some $6-$8bn worth of US Treasuries through Pomo this Friday starting at 10:15am in New York.
We figure Mr Bernanke is still busy writing emails.
Or gearing up for a certain liquidity event…
Update: (11:38am New York time) It seems the printing presses have started working again. The Fed just bought $7.23bn worth of US Treasury coupons.
Related links:
The POMO effect, charted - FT Alphaville
The increasing frequency of the Fed’s POMOs – FT Alphaville