In its latest emergency action, the Federal Reserve is establishing a lending facility to buy short-term loans from banks and companies to ease the flow of credit as the economy grinds to a halt from the viral outbreak.
The Fed announced Tuesday that it's reviving a program it first used during the 2008 financial crisis to unclog a short-term lending market for what is known as “commercial paper.” Large businesses issue commercial paper to raise cash to meet payrolls and cover other short-term costs.
Borrowing rates in the commercial paper market have been spiking as more companies have sought to raise cash in the expectation that their revenue will plunge.
At the same time, money market funds, among the largest buyers of the short-term loans, are seeking to sell commercial paper themselves. They need to raise money because they expect large institutional investors to withdraw funds, and they need cash to cover those withdrawals.
All that activity has made it harder for banks and other companies to raise the cash they need.
In its announcement, the Fed said it has set up an investment vehicle to buy the commercial paper with the approval of the Treasury Department. The Treasury has also committed to guaranteeing up to $10 billion of the loans, to prevent the Fed from taking losses.
“An improved commercial paper market will enhance the ability of businesses to maintain employment and investment as the nation deals with the coronavirus outbreak,” the Fed said in a statement.
Oracle soars as it cashes in on the AI boom, Plus: Starbucks shares continue to fall under its new CEO, and does anybody actually want a new iPhone Air?
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
