ICI's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, December 2013" shows that money fund assets increased by $45.1 billion in December, after increasing $4.8 billion in November and decreasing $11.5 billion in October. (MMFs increased for 3 straight months prior to this, up $46.7 billion in September, $20.4 billion in August and $26.8 billion in July.) For calendar 2013, ICI shows money fund assets up by $25.0 billion, or 0.9%. The Institute's December asset totals show a continued rebound in stock fund assets and continued outflows from bond funds (down $34.2 billion in Dec.). (Bond fund assets declined by $124.4 billion in 2013.) Money fund assets have declined in 3 out of 4 weeks in 2014, falling by $13.0 billion month-to-date through Jan. 29 and by $1.8 billion in the week through Wednesday. ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which confirmed a jump in Repo, Agencies and Treasuris, and a drop in CDs. (See Crane Data's January 13 News, "Govt Agency and Treasuries Jump; Fed Repo Holdings Skyrocket in Dec..")
ICI's December "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $188.6 billion, or 1.3 percent, to $15.010 trillion in December, 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 $25.09 billion in December, compared with an outflow of $18.24 billion in November." Money funds represent 18.1% of all mutual fund assets.
It adds, "Money market funds had an inflow of $44.10 billion in December, compared with an inflow of $5.08 billion in November. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $31.39 billion. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an inflow of $12.71 billion." ICI's "Liquid Assets of Stock Mutual Funds" dipped to 3.5% from 3.8% as stock funds reduced their already razor thin reserves of cash.
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" says, "Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $1.82 billion to $2.706 trillion for the week ending Wednesday, January 29, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $5.65 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $4.71 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $2.76 billion." YTD, Institutional assets have been flat (down $1 billion) while Retail assets have declined by $12 billion.
ICI's Portfolio Holdings for Dec. 2013 show that Repos rebounded by $43.0 billion, or 9.4%, (after falling $23.7 billion in Nov. and $15.1 billion in Oct.) to $501.7 billion (20.5% of assets). Thanks to a massive shift into the Fed's new reverse repo program, repo reclaimed the largest segment of taxable money fund portfolio holdings according to ICI's data series (behind Treasuries and CDs). Treasury Bills & Securities remained the second largest segment with an increase of $18.7 billion to $495.9 billion (20.3%). Holdings of Certificates of Deposits plunged $25.9 billion to $529.8 billion (20.2%) and moved into third place among composition segments.
Commercial Paper, which fell by $10.2 billion, or 2.8%, declined to the fifth largest segment behind U.S. Government Agency Securities. CP holdings totaled $357.9 billion (14.6% of assets) while Agencies rose by $22.3 billion to $367.3 billion (15.0%). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) rose by $11.2 billion to $103.8 billion (4.2% of assets), and Other holdings fell by $7.8 billion to $78.0 billion (3.2%). (The latter was likely due to the decline in Time Deposits as money funds utilized the Fed's repo program instead of their normal shift from dealer repo to TDs at quarter-end.)
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds increased by 138,116 to 24.113 million, while the Number of Funds fell by 3 to 382. In 2013, the number of accounts fell by over 1.1 million and the number of funds declined by 18. The Average Maturity of Portfolios declined by 2 days to 47 days in Dec. Over the past year, WAMs of Taxable money funds have extended by two days.
Finally, note that Crane Data has begun producing a new "Holdings Reports Issuer Module," which allows subscribers to choose a series of Portfolio Holdings and Issuers and to see a full listing of which money funds own this paper. (Visit our Content Center and the latest Money Fund Portfolio Holdings download page to access the first version of this new file.) We also have updated our January MFI XLS to reflect the 12/31 composition data and maturity breakouts for our entire fund universe.
