ICI's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, October 2013" shows that money fund assets decreased by $11.5 billion in October, after increasing for 3 straight months (up $46.7 billion in September, $20.4 billion in August and $26.8 billion in July). (Money funds assets fell in each of the first four months of 2013, rose in May then fell in June.) YTD through 10/31, ICI shows money fund assets down by $24.4 billion, or 1.0%. The Institute's October asset totals show a continued rebound in bond fund assets (outflows continued, but principal gains drove overall totals higher), up by $18.2 billion after increasing $29.9 billion in Sept. and falling by $61.0 billon in August, $6.4 billion in July and a record $143.1 billion in June. (Note that assets include gains and losses and differ from "flows".) Money fund assets rebounded in the latest week after two weeks of modest outflows and assets are up by about $9.0 billion November-to-date. Finally, ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which show a drop in Treasuries and Repo, and an increase in CP. (See Crane Data's November 14 News, "Nov. MF Portfolio Holdings Show CP and TD Jump; Repo, Treasury.")
ICI's October "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $332.3 billion, or 2.3 percent, to $14.632 trillion in October, according to the Investment Company Institute's official survey of the mutual fund industry. In the survey, mutual fund companies report actual assets, sales, and redemptions to ICI.... Bond funds had an outflow of $15.58 billion in October, compared with an outflow of $11.58 billion in September."
It adds, "Money market funds had an outflow of $12.12 billion in October, compared with an inflow of $45.71 billion in September. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $1.85 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $10.26 billion." ICI's "Liquid Assets of Stock Mutual Funds" inched up to 3.8% from 3.7% as stock funds continue to hold razor thin reserves of cash.
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets," says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $15.10 billion to $2.678 trillion for the six-day period ended Tuesday, November 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $4.97 billion, taxable non-government funds increased by $10.99 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $860 million." Over the past 4 weeks, ICI shows money fund assets rising by $9.0 billion; MMF assets are now up by $13.0 billion, or 0.5%, YTD through Nov. 27. YTD, Institutional MMFs are up by $25 billion, or 1.4%, while Retail MMFs are down by $12 billion, or 1.3%.
ICI's Portfolio Holdings for Oct. 2013 show that Repos declined by $15.1 billion, or 3.0% (after a sharp drop in August and strong rebound in Sept.) to $482.9 billion (20.1% of assets). Repos remains the second largest segment of taxable money fund portfolio holdings behind CDs. Holdings of Certificates of Deposits, still the largest position, rose by $3.2 billion to $535.5 billion (22.3%). Treasury Bills & Securities, the third largest segment, decreased by $14.3 billion to $460.7 billion (19.1%).
Commercial Paper, which jumped by $12.0 billion, or 3.3%, remained the fourth largest segment ahead of U.S. Government Agency Securities. CP holdings totaled $376.4 billion (15.6% of assets). Agencies fell by $5.1 billion to $355.4 billion (14.8% of taxable assets). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) rose by $3.4 billion to $94.1 billion (3.9% of assets), and Other holdings rose by $0.9 billion to $85.6 billion (3.6%).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased by 83,467 to 24.123 million, while the Number of Funds fell by 1 to 387. The Average Maturity of Portfolios lengthened by one day to 49 days in Oct. Over the past year, WAMs of Taxable money funds have remained flat.
Note that Crane Data publishes daily asset totals via our Money Fund Intelligence Daily and monthly asset totals via our Money Fund Intelligence XLS. ICI publishes its weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" summary (referenced above), as well as the monthly asset totals. Each data set and time series contains slight differences among the tracked universes of money market mutual funds. Crane also publishes monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings and calculates a monthly Portfolio Composition totals from these (we recently updated our October MFI XLS to reflect the 10/31 composition data and maturity breakouts), while ICI collects a separate monthly Composition series.
