Federal Reserve’s Assets Soar to $2.55 Trillion

Bond purchases by the Federal Reserve of $11.9 billion in the second round of its quantitative easing, has brought the total assets held by the central bank to $2.55 trillion.

As of Wednesday, the Fed increased the amount of Treasuries held by $22.8 billion to $1.24 trillion. Mortgage-backed securities held by the Fed dropped by $9.27 billion to $948.9 billion. Federal agency debt was cut by $870 million to $143.2 billion.

Since November 12, the Federal Reserve has acquired $396.1 billion in Treasuries. Through June the central bank has a goal of acquiring $600 billion in government debt. They will also reinvest capital from maturing mortgage debt as well.

For the week ending February 21, the M2 money supply increased by $10.6 billion, according to the Fed. That means it's growing at an annual rate of 3.9 percent over the last year.

The difference between M1 and M2 ways of measuring the money supply is that M2, which is followed more than M1, includes savings and private holdings in money market, while M1 only measures capital held by companies and consumers for spending, in checking accounts and travelers checks.

M1 rose $25.7 billion, and over the last year jumped 9.2 percent.