NY Fed Releases Announces Changes to Open Market Operations Due to Hurricane Sandy

Oct 29 - The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is open today. Due to financial market closures and the market conditions anticipated to accompany Hurricane Sandy, several changes have been made to System Open Market Account operations previously scheduled to take place today and tomorrow.

The sale of Treasury securities that was tentatively scheduled for Oct. 29, will take place as scheduled, with a 10:15 a.m. open and 11:00 a.m. close. However, settlement will take place on Oct. 31, not Oct. 30. The purchase of Treasury securities previously scheduled for Oct. 30, has been postponed, and the schedule of Treasury security operations will be updated in the coming days with details of the rescheduled operation. After the oct. 29 sale, Treasury purchase and sale operations are anticipated to resume on Oct. 31.

Similarly, there will be no agency mortgage-backed securities trading on Oct. 30. MBS trading operations are anticipated to resume on Oct. 31.

Due to SIFMA's recommended early market close for fixed-income markets today, today's securities lending operation will conclude at 11:45 a.m., instead of the typical 12:00 p.m. Overnight loans made today will mature on Oct. 31, consistent with the market conventions being adopted. In light of this settlement convention, a securities lending operation will not be held Oct. 30.

We are continuing to evaluate market conditions and will make announcements regarding other Federal Reserve operations as needed.