The amount of commercial paper outstanding climbed for the sixth straight week.
According to Federal Reserve data, total commercial paper topped $1.65 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, up by $11.5 billion from the previous week. The total is also nearly $49 billion higher compared to just three week ago.
Most of last week’s gains were attributed to financial firms, which saw their total outstanding surge by about $25 billion. In the past three weeks, outstanding commercial paper issued by financial firms is up nearly 8 percent.
This is important, given that financial firms account for about 43 percent of the market, slightly less than the share enjoyed by asset-backed issuers. Non-financial issuers account for about 12 percent of the market.
The total market still is down from $1.82 trillion three months ago and the peak of $2.2 trillion during the summer of 2007.