After regaining some ground over a several-week period, the commercial paper market now has declined for the second straight week. The volume of outstanding commercial paper declined by $30.3 billion, to nearly $1.69 trillion, for the week ended Wednesday, according to the Federal Reserve.
For the past two weeks, outstanding commercial paper fell by $76.1 billion. That nearly negated the $83.1 billion increase recorded in the first week of January.
In addition, the short-term financing market has slumped in four of the past five weeks. The biggest decline last week was recorded by asset-backed paper, which fell by $22.2 billion, to $749 billion.
The total commercial paper market is down from $1.82 trillion about four months ago and the peak of $2.2 trillion during the summer of 2007.