Money market mutual fund assets increased by $19.34 billion to a record $3.428 trillion according to the Investment Company Institute's latest weekly asset series. Crane Data calculates the 52-week asset increase as a stunning $1.029 trillion, or 42.9%. Year-to-date, money fund assets have increased by $281.6 billion, or 8.9%, their fastest YTD start ever, and over 26 weeks (since 8/29) they've increased by $665 billion, or 24%. A massive institutional flight to quality and desire to delay the impact of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts added to already strong asset gains.
Retail money fund assets increased by $3.61 billion this week to a record $1.237 trillion, and have increased YTD by $75.2 billion, or 6.5%. Institutional money fund assets increased by $15.74 billion to a record $2.191 trillion; they have increased YTD by $206.3 billion, or 10.4%. Government institutional funds saw the largest inflows, $19.8 billion, while government funds also took the lion's share of retail inflows. Tax-exempt money funds saw outflows for the third-straight week, losing $832 million on the institutional side and $1.8 billion on the retail side. This marks the third straight week of tax-exempt outflows, due primarily to depressed (though since rebounding) yields due to limited supply and due to concerns over the impact of possible monoline insurance downgrades.
Money Fund Intelligence Daily shows the Crane Money Fund Average (taxable) falling 15 basis points to 3.15% and our narrower Crane 100 falling 14 bps to 3.31%. The Crane Tax-Exempt Money Fund Index rose 79 bps to 2.35% in the week through Feb. 27.
