Federal Reserve bails out Wall Street with $1.3 billion in corporate bond purchases

In its first week of operation, the Federal Reserve purchased more than $1 billion of shares in 15 exchange-traded funds (ETF).

As part of its Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, the U.S. central bank began its bailout of Wall Street by acquiring ETFs from ten securities firms.

So, what did its $1.3 billion buy in May?

According to the Fed’s first detailed disclosure of the SMCCF’s transactions, its biggest purchase was $326.3 million in the iShares iBoxx US Dollar Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF, which the third largest U.S. taxable bond ETF, according to Lipper data. Its top holdings include bonds from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America.

The other major purchase was that of six ETFs devoted to junk bonds. The biggest one was the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF at just over $100 million.