The April issue of our Money Fund Intelligence and Crane Index publications show that money market fund yields continued to decline in March. The benchmark Crane 100 Money Fund Index fell 51 basis points (0.51%) to 2.76% (7-day simple yield) in the month ended March 31, 2008. This index has fallen 173 bps since Dec. 31, 2007, and has fallen 224 bps (from 5.00%) since March 31, 2007. The Crane 100 Index returned the following for March 2008: 1-month (0.25%), 3-mo (0.89%), YTD (0.89%), 1-Year (4.65%), 3-Yr (4.35%), 5-Yr (3.04%), and 10-Yr (3.60%). Its 30-Day yield was 2.96% as of month-end.
The broader Crane Money Fund Average, which tracks 861 taxable money market mutual funds, yielded 2.26% (7-day) and 2.52% (30-day) as of March 31, down 61 bps (its 7-day yield) from a month earlier and down 263 bps from a year earlier. The Crane Institutional MF Index declined 60 bps to 2.56% and the Crane Individual MF Index declined 63 bps to 2.08% in March. Our Crane Tax Exempt Index fell 50 bps to 1.86%.
During the month, the Federal funds target rate was reduced from 3.00 to 2.25 percent. Brokerage cash and bank rates also declined during the month, though the former is starting to slow its descent (due to some rates approaching zero). Our monthly Crane Brokerage Cash Index fell to 1.80% (down 29 bps), and our Crane Top Bank MM Index fell by 31 bps to 3.35%. For more details on the Crane Indexes or to request a copy of our monthly Crane Index product, e-mail Pete or call 1-508-439-4419. (You can also type "ALLX CRNI" to see the list of Crane Indexes available on the Bloomberg(r) Professional service.)
