ICI's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, November 2013" shows that money fund assets increased by $4.8 billion in November, after decreasing by $11.5 billion in October (and increasing for 3 straight months prior to this, up $46.7 billion in September, $20.4 billion in August and $26.8 billion in July). (Money funds assets also fell in each of the first four months of 2013, rose in May then fell in June.) YTD through 11/30, ICI shows money fund assets down by $19.8 billion, or 0.7%. The Institute's November asset totals show a continued rebound in stock fund assets and continued outflows from bond funds (down $23.7 billion in Nov.). Money fund assets have skyrocketed in December and in the latest week, rising by $56.0 billion month-to-date through Dec. 27 and by $46.0 billion in the week through Friday. Finally, ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which verify a drop in Repo, Agencies and CP, and jumps in CDs and Treasuries. (See Crane Data's December 10 News, "CDs, Treasuries Surge While Repos, Agencies Plunge in Nov. Holdings.")
ICI's November "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $183.4 billion, or 1.3 percent, to $14.815 trillion in November, 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 $18.12 billion in November, compared with an outflow of $15.62 billion in October [and an outflow of $11.58 billion in September]."
It adds, "Money market funds had an inflow of $5.35 billion in November, compared with an outflow of $12.12 billion in October. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $7.93 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $2.58 billion." ICI's "Liquid Assets of Stock Mutual Funds" remained at 3.8% as stock funds continue to hold razor thin reserves of cash.
ICI's Portfolio Holdings for Nov. 2013 show that Repos declined by $23.7 billion, or 4.9%, (after falling $15.1 billion in Oct.) to $459.1 billion (19.0% of assets). Repos have fallen to become the third largest segment of taxable money fund portfolio holdings behind CDs and Treasuries. Holdings of Certificates of Deposits, still the largest position, rose by $19.8 billion to $555.3 billion (23.0%). Treasury Bills & Securities became the second largest segment with an increase of $16.9 billion to $477.5 billion (19.8%).
Commercial Paper, which fell by $7.9 billion, or 2.1%, remained the fourth largest segment ahead of U.S. Government Agency Securities. CP holdings totaled $368.5 billion (15.3% of assets). Agencies fell by $10.6 billion to $344.7 billion (14.3% of taxable assets). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) fell by $1.4 billion to $92.7 billion (3.8% of assets), and Other holdings rose by $164 million to $85.8 billion (3.6%).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased by 95,759 to 24.029 million, while the Number of Funds fell by 2 to 385. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was flat at 49 days in Nov. Over the past year, WAMs of Taxable money funds have declined by one day.
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, 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 December MFI XLS to reflect the 11/30 composition data and maturity breakouts), while ICI collects a separate monthly Composition series.
