MMFs See First Decrease in '24
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows MMF assets `experienced their first decrease of the New Year, falling $14.1 billion to $5.961 trillion (likely due to the long Holiday weekend and the Jan. 15 tax payment date). They rose $10.0 billion last week and $78.6 billion the week before that. The latest weekly decrease pushes assets below their record $5.975 trillion set on 1/10/24. Assets are up by $74 billion, or 1.6%, year-to-date in 2024, with Institutional MMFs up $31 billion, or 1.0% and Retail MMFs up $44 billion, or 2.6%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen a massive $1.158 trillion, or 24.1%, with Retail MMFs rising by $595 billion (34.2%) and Inst MMFs rising by $562 billion (18.4%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $14.12 billion to $5.96 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, January 17, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $15.66 billion and prime funds increased by $5.17 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds decreased by $3.62 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $15.8 billion and Retail MMFs rising $1.7 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.862 trillion (81.6% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $978.3 billion (16.4%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $120.7 billion (2.0%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $1.65 billion to $2.33 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $1.14 billion to $1.52 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $3.86 billion to $706.78 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $3.35 billion to $109.36 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.2%, and Government Retail assets make up 65.0% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $15.77 billion to $3.63 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $16.81 billion to $3.34 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $1.31 billion to $271.50 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $274 million to $11.35 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.8% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.2% of all Institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets rose $48.3 billion in the first 17 days of January to $6.349 trillion, slightly off their record $6.372 trillion level set on 1/11/24. Assets rose $32.7 billion in December, jumped $226.4 billion in November but fell by $31.9 billion in October. They rose $93.9 billion in September, $98.3 billion in August and $34.7 billion in July. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're over $400 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
