MMFs Plunge on March 15 Corp Taxes
Money market mutual fund assets decreased by $61.9 billion the past week, which included the March 15 quarterly corporate tax date, to $6.047 trillion, after jumping $31.3 billion the previous week, according to ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report. MMF assets are up by $160 billion, or 3.4%, year-to-date in 2024 (through 3/20/24), with Institutional MMFs up $51 billion, or 1.7% and Retail MMFs up $110 billion, or 6.5%. Over the past 52 weeks, money funds have risen a massive $914 billion, or 18.2%, with Retail MMFs rising by $538 billion (29.1%) and Inst MMFs rising by $377 billion (11.9%). The weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets decreased by $61.90 billion to $6.05 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, March 20, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds decreased by $66.09 billion and prime funds increased by $3.27 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $913 million." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs falling $71.1 billion and Retail MMFs rising $9.2 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $4.906 trillion (81.1% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.019 trillion (16.9%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $121.2 billion (2.0%). ICI explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $9.21 billion to $2.40 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $4.51 billion to $1.54 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $4.11 billion to $748.27 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $595 million to $110.09 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.7%, and Government Retail assets make up 64.2% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $71.11 billion to $3.65 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets decreased by $70.60 billion to $3.36 trillion, prime money market fund assets decreased by $836 million to $271.17 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $318 million to $11.10 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.3% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 92.3% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have fallen by $561 million in March (through 3/20) to $6.466 trillion (they were a record $6.519 trillion on 3/12). Assets rose $72.1 billion in February, $93.9 billion in January, $32.7 billion in December and $226.4 billion in November. MMF totals 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.
