The Federal Reserve continued snapping up corporate bonds to help keep credit markets functioning, with the central bank disclosing on Friday that it had added more than $1.3 billion in bonds from individual companies as of June 30.
The central bank has been helping to support the secondary corporate bond market — the one for already-issued debt — by buying Exchange Traded Funds, which track a broad basket of bonds but trade like stocks, as well as individual bonds. It announced last month that it was beginning to shift its purchases to an index of corporate debt of its own design.
That index is meant to reflect the available universe of bonds that fit the program’s restrictions, with limits for individual issuers. According to its most recent disclosure, the Fed invested in bonds from companies including Apple, AT&T, Bayer, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Ford Motor Co. and Verizon.
The Fed’s program is authorized to buy as much as $250 billion in already-issued bonds. Another program has been created to buy up to $500 billion of newly-issued bonds but the facility had not recorded any purchases at the end of June.
As of June 30, the Fed said it had $9.4 billion in total outstanding loans under its secondary market corporate credit facility. — Deborah Solomon
Now that Independence Day is behind us, tax day is fast approaching.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Treasury Department postponed the traditional April 15 federal tax filing deadline until July 15. And this time, there’s no wiggle room. Last month, the Internal Revenue Service announced that there would not be another blanket filing delay.
So if you haven’t filed your return yet — or if you’ve filed but haven’t yet paid the taxes you owe for 2019 — the deadline is Wednesday.
“It’s just like April 15, but in July,” said Cindy Hockenberry, director of tax research and government relations for the National Association of Tax Professionals, a trade group.
About 142 million taxpayers had filed returns as of July 3, according to I.R.S. statistics, but the agency has struggled to process returns because of reduced staffing during the pandemic. The agency had processed about 131 million returns as of July 3 — 10 percent fewer than the same time last year.
And some taxpayers are facing long delays in getting the refunds they’re owed, according to a report from Erin Collins, the new national taxpayer advocate, who represents filers. — Ann Carrns
Just about every area of personal finance has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. That economic shock reaches all the way to some of the most aspirational purchases on the planet: art, cars, watches and wine.
The mechanism to buy and sell many of these objects — frothy, in-person auctions, with attendees dressed smartly and cocktails readily available — has been rendered untenable since March because of…
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