The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it will begin reducing its holdings of corporate bonds it bought last year through an emergency lending program it launched to calm credit markets at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The US Central Bank indicated that the sale of its holdings of corporate bonds and index trading funds that invest in corporate bonds will be in a “gradual and orderly” manner, to reduce the possibility of any negative impact on market performance, by taking into account the daily liquidity and trading conditions of exchange-traded funds and corporate bonds.
The Fed has an estimated $13.7 billion portfolio of secondary market corporate debt, which includes a range of corporate bonds and ETFs, according to updated balance sheet details last week.