U.S. interbank lending rates are again higher on Friday as earnings season continues and financial institutions continue to face the pressures of an ailing system.
On Capitol Hill, the biggest debate continues on how the next $350 billion TARP funds will be spent, and how much of that will actually go to bolstering the capital requirements in financial institutions.
While Congresspersons and Senators have expressed a desire to divert some of the funds to foreclosure prevention and helping the U.S. auto industry, many key political figures, including U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner, continue to stress that a majority of the cash needs to go to helping the financial sector, the original recipients of the funding.
The debate also comes under the auspices of next Tuesday's FOMC meeting, which promises to be interesting with the central bank considering the setting of an inflation target and the outright purchase of U.S. Treasuries as a way to liquefy a frozen financial system.
As a consequence, interbank lending rates are higher on Friday with the overnight USD Libor up another 3 bps to 0.24% and the three-month Libor up 1 bp to 1.17%.
The Ted Spread widened by 1 bp to 107 bps and the Libor/OIS spread was relatively unchanged at 94 bps. Both are key measures of credit tightness in the United States.
Elsewhere, the Canadian dollar Libor was flat at 0.98%, while the three-month Libor rose 1.67 bps to 1.54%. The Euro Libor declined 1.88 bps to 1.13%, while the three-month Libor fell 6.31 bps to 2.19%. The Sterling Libor was down 4.06 bps to 1.53% and the three-month Libor pulled back 0.81 bps to 2.19%.
By Erik Kevin Franco and edited by Nancy Girgis
©CEP News Ltd. 2009