Money fund assets rebounded in the latest week, rising $896 million to $3.456 trillion, following a 3-week decline of $65.0 billion. The ICI's latest weekly series shows retail money funds rising $2.5 billion to $1.210 trillion and institutional assets falling $1.6 billion to $2.246 trillion in the week ended July 2. Funds should see very large inflows in the coming week as quarter-end pressures ease and as new dividend, bond coupon and other payments hit money market accounts.
Year-to-date, money fund assets have increased by $311.6 billion, or 9.9%. Over the past 52 weeks, assets have increased by $896 billion, or 35.0%. Institutional assets continue to represent almost two-thirds of the total, 65.0%. While the huge institutional surge brought on by falling rates and last fall's safety panic has abated, money funds should continue to benefit from their status as one of the only "safe harbors" to remain open during the past 10 months of money market squalls.
Money fund yields rose slightly on the week but fell slightly in June. Our Crane 100 Money Fund Index, the average current yield of the 100 largest taxable money funds, fell from 2.34% to 2.27% in June. Over the past week (through July 4), the Crane 100 moved from 2.24% (annualized) to 2.28%. The Index was 4.96% a year ago (6/30/08). For the month, the Crane 100 returned 0.19%, for the quarter 0.61%, YTD 1.46%, and over 1-year 4.02%.
As of June 30, our Crane Money Fund Average yielded 1.96%, our Institutional MF Index yielded 2.24%, our Individual MF Index yielded 1.80%, and our Tax Exempt MF Index yielded 1.28%. These are preliminary estimates. Final returns, and returns by sub-type (such as "Prime Institutional") are published in new July issue of Money Fund Intelligence and Crane Index.
