For a week in which Europe was supposed to be healing, and certainly not provoking the curiosity of forensic capital chasers, it sure did a heck of a job. In the week ended October 19, the Fed disclosed that not only did it roll its $500 million 7 Day facility (at 1.08%) with the ECB, but it also entered into a new 84-Day 1.09% facility (this is about 60 bps more than 3M USD Libor, confirming just how ridiculous and meaningless the 3 month USD Libor market is).
It is of course unclear which bank ends up being on the ECB's receiving end, but one thing is certain: the dollar shortage in Europe is now as bad as it was just after the first Greece insolvency, when nobody was prepared for the bank lockup that followed. Additionally, with deposit loans at the ECB soaring to €182 billion, a runrate which will promptly surpass last month's high, it is once again all too clear that there is no free liquidity in Europe, and that the thesis presented by Zero Hedge over the weekend, that the only reason for the persistent high level of the EUR is due to the sale of USD assets by French banks and subsequent FX repatriation, is what explains the ongoing schism between the European market, which is driven by wholesale asset sell offs by French banks, and the American one, which is electronically trading with 100% correlation to the EURUSD which is sending a completly false "all clear" signal to the market.
Historical New York Fed swap line usage:
And the just released Fed data:
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