In its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing: October 2009," the Investment Company Institute reports that money fund outflows continued but moderated in October. Money fund assets declined by $64.3 billion, or 1.9%, to $3.361 trillion, while bond funds increased $49.5 billion to $2.126 trillion. ICI also reported its "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Market Funds," which showed sharp declines in Government Agency Securities and Treasury Bills and large increases in Repurchase Agreements and Certificates of Deposits.
ICI's Trends says, "Money market funds had an outflow of $71.80 billion in October, compared with an outflow of $126.91 billion in September. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $40.34 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $31.46 billion." Year-to-date through Oct. 31, ICI shows money fund assets declining by $471.1 billion, or 12.2%, while bond funds assets have risen a stunning $560.7 billion, or 35.8%. The report also shows that stock funds' cash holdings remain near record lows at 3.9%.
Month-to-date in November, money fund outflows have slowed further with money fund assets showing an increase in the latest week. ICI's latest weekly stats (through Nov. 18) showed money fund assets rising by $3.8 billion; they show assets declining by $30 billion month-to-date. (Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence XLS shows money fund assets rising by an additional $16.5 billion in the week ended Monday, Nov. 23.)
ICI's monthly "Holdings report (available to subscribers only) shows that CDs, including Eurodollar CDs, remain taxable money funds' largest holding at 22.4%, or $660.78 billion, followed by Governments at 20.3% ($600.1 billion). CDs increased by $10.4 billion in October and have increased by $285.4 billion over the past year, while Governments fell by $48.6 billion in October but have risen by $81.5 billion over the past year.
Repurchase agreements represent the third-largest holding of money funds at 18.1% ($533.9 billion), and CP represents the fourth-largest holding at 17.7% ($522.3 billion). Repos rebounded by $28.4 billion in October, but have decreased by $90.2 billion over 12 months. CP has plunged over the past year (down $117.1 billion) and declined by $1.4 billion in October.
Treasury securities, which dropped by $44.6 billion in October to 13.2% of holdings ($390.9 billion), ranked fifth, followed by Notes (both Corporate and Bank) with 5.6% ($164.1 billion). The final 2.7% of holdings were labelled "Other". The report also showed Average Maturities increasing 2 days to 55, the number of funds rising by 2 to 488, and the number of accounts outstanding declining to 31.11 million.
