The Federal Reserve expanded the scope and duration of the Municipal Liquidity Facility, a $500 billion emergency lending program aimed at providing short-term credit to state and local governments as they endure the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. central bank lowered the population thresholds under which counties and cities would be eligible to sell the short-term debt to the facility. The new levels are at least 500,000 for counties and 250,000 for cities, down from 2 million and 1 million. (Bloomberg) The Trump administration faces significant hurdles in getting the Federal Reserve to help rescue an oil industry squeezed by plunging crude prices given the central bank’s aversion to helping specific industries and its lack of authority to help businesses that are insolvent. The Fed regards loan programs aimed at a specific industry as credit allocation -- something Chairman Jerome Powell specifically rejected in an April 9 speech. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Bloomberg News Thursday that the administration was looking to help battered oil companies by “providing a lending facility for the industry.” (Bloomberg) Source: Danareksa Sekuritas Debt Research