A year ago, money market funds were hard hit by the demise of Lehman Bros. Commercial paper makes up the bulk of many funds and Lehman issued a ton of it.
The government guaranteed money funds to quell a financial panic and says it raised $1.2 bln in fees from the program. It is letting the program expire now, saying it is no longer needed.
Other tidbits crossing the wires include a 5% us GDP forecast from Barclays for the first quarter of 2010.
The weekly ECRI index is out as well, and it is at another record high, with annualized growth at 22.9% in the week of September 11.
The dollar has eased off its highs after a sharp short-covering rally saw cable fall as low as 1.6262 and EUR/USD as low as 1.4680. Traders report whispers of dollar-demand at the upcoming 15:00 GMT fixing.
