Banks borrowed slightly more over the past week from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program, while Wall Street firms did not draw any loans for a second straight week.
The Fed reported Thursday that commercial banks averaged $17.70 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compared with a daily average of $17.37 billion in the previous week.
Investment houses, however, again did not take out any loans, possibly indicating that pressures on these institutions for short-term credit may be easing.
The Fed, in the broadest expansion of its lending powers, granted investment houses the privilege of getting direct loans from the Fed's emergency loan program back in March. That's when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues were scrambling to calm turbulent financial markets worried about rising losses from billions of dollars of bad loans on home mortgages.
