Fed Proves Irrelevant in $2.6 Trillion Slice of U.S. Debt Market
- Money-market rules may push $650 billion into safest assets
- Treasury's plans to increase bill issuance won't meet demand
Will Fed Raise Rates in Dec. and Then Again in March?
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The blowout U.S. jobs report for October means the Federal Reserve may be weeks away from raising interest rates. For U.S. savers earning next to nothing on $2.6 trillion of money-market mutual funds, the move will barely register.
The reason is that there’s an unprecedented shortfall in the safest assets, especially Treasury bills -- a mainstay of those funds and traditionally the government obligations that are most sensitive to changes in Fed policy. The shortage means some key money-market rates will probably remain near historic lows even if the central bank increases its benchmark from near zero next month.