Helicopter money shores up the Dow.

The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that Big Wall Street investment companies averaged $38.1 billion in daily borrowing over the past week from the new lending program. That compares with $32.9 billion in the previous week and $13.4 billion in the first week the lending facility opened on March 17th.

The Fed, for the first time ever has agreed to let big investment houses temporarily get emergency loans directly from the central bank. This mechanism, similar to one available for commercial banks for years, will continue for at least six months.

On top of this new wave of liquidity..

Banks also stepped up their borrowing from the Fed’s discount window. Banks averaged $7 billion in daily borrowing for the week ending April 2. That compared with $550 million the previous week.

Where is all this borrowing going ?

Simply to shore up equities.