A look at some of the Fed's support programs

A look at the status of some of the Fed's major economic support programs:

— Program to buy $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Goal is to drive down mortgage rates and bolster the housing market. Program is slated to end March 31. But the Fed could extend the program if it deemed the economy too weak. So far, it's bought $970.2 billion of the securities.

—Program to buy about $175 billion in debt from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the end of March. So far, $164.1 billion has been bought. This program also is designed to support the housing market.

— Program to provide low-cost loans to banks, called the Term Auction Facility. The Fed was lending an average of $38.5 billion over the week that ended Feb. 3. That program is slated to end March 8.

— Program designed to spark lending to consumers and small businesses at cheaper rates, called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, for short. Use of that program averaged $47.3 billion over the week that ended Feb. 3. On March 31, most of that program will end. An exception will be a component that seeks to bolster the market for newly issued commercial real estate securities. That part of the program will end June 30.

— Program to provide emergency loans to investment houses, known as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, folded Feb. 1. Loans hadn't been drawn in months.

— Programs to backstop the "commercial paper" market. (This involves short-term financing used to pay salaries and supplies.) and one to bolster the money market mutual fund industry both ended Feb. 1. Those programs also had fallen out of use.

— Program to buy $300 billion in Treasury securities shut down at the end of October. That program was designed to force rates down for mortgages and other consumer debt, to get Americans to spend more.