The Wall Street Journal reported late yesterday that the Federal Reserve spent November 1 pumping in $41 billion to the financial markets, its largest injection of funds since the liquidity crisis first began:

The size of the injection may come as a surprise, coming just a day after the central bank delivered its second consecutive rate cut. Wednesday’s 25 basis point cut — which brings the target rate to 4.5% — follows a half percentage-point drop in September, which was intended in part to help ease stubbornly high lending rates in the interbank market. The New York Federal Reserve’s Web site announced a one-day repurchase of $12 billion, alongside a $21 billion seven-day, and a $8 billion 14-day operation. The total exceeds the $38 billion injection back in August that marked the largest contribution to the market in a single day since the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. “This morning’s combined RP package of $41 billion is significantly larger than we had expected based on our tentative reserve projections,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist with Wrightson ICAP.

The story is free for non-subscribers.