Crane Data Subscribers
Money Funds Experiencing Fastest Ever Year-to-Date Growth in 2008. Money market mutual fund assets are off to their fastest year-to-date start ever in 2008, increasing $241.5 billion or 7.7% through Feb. 13. ICI's latest weekly figures show assets rising by $25.31 billion to a record $3.388 trillion. Institutional assets accounted for almost all of the inflows, rising $24.53 billion to $2.164 trillion. Over the past 6 weeks, money funds have averaged asset gains of $40 billion a week, and over the past 52 weeks money fund assets have skyrocketed by almost $1 trillion (up $993, or 41.5%). Tax-exempt money funds saw outflows with retail T-E funds down $1.85 billion and institutional T-E funds down $2.68 billion, as low yields related limited supply started driving investors into taxable funds. Money funds continue benefiting from lower rates and from a flight to safety. Yields on money funds continue lower, though they remain substantially above the Federal funds target rate of 3%. Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index has declined by 34 basis points over the past week to 3.54%, while our Tax-Exempt Index plunged 85 bps in the week to 1.85%. (Contact Pete to see a copy of our new Money Fund Intelligence Daily or for more details and historical data on the ICI's money fund asset series.)
