ICI's latest "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing, January 2014" shows that money fund assets decreased by $10.5 billion in January, after increasing $45.1 billion in December and $4.8 billion in November. For calendar 2013, ICI shows money fund assets up by $25.0 billion, or 0.9%. The Institute's January asset totals show a sharp drop in stock fund assets and a rebound in bond funds (up $28.5 billion in January after being down $34.2 billion in Dec.). (Bond fund assets declined by $124.4 billion in 2013.) Money fund assets rebounded in the latest week, but they've fallen by $22 billion month-to-date in February through 2/26. ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which verified our reported jump in CD holdings and plunge in Treasuries. (See Crane Data's February 13 News, "CD, TD Portfolio Holdings Jump, Treasury, Agencies Plunge in January.")
ICI's January "Trends" says, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds decreased by $215.2 billion, or 1.4 percent, to $14.800 trillion in January, 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 $1.23 billion in January, compared with an outflow of $25.08 billion in December." Money funds represent 18.3% of all mutual fund assets while bond funds represent 22.5%.
It adds, "Money market funds had an outflow of $9.82 billion in January, compared with an inflow of $44.14 billion in December. Funds offered primarily to institutions had an outflow of $201 million. Funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $9.62 billion." ICI's "Liquid Assets of Stock Mutual Funds" inched higher to 3.6% from 3.5% as stock funds continued to hold razor thin levels of cash.
ICI's latest weekly "Money Market Mutual Fund Assets" says, "Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $19.96 billion to $2.684 trillion for the week ending Wednesday, February 26, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds increased by $6.60 billion, taxable non-government funds increased by $14.42 billion, and tax-exempt funds decreased by $1.06 billion." Last week, money fund assets declined sharply, down $49.3 billion. YTD, money fund assets have decreased by $35 billion, or 1.3%. Institutional assets are down by $22 billion, or 1.2%, while Retail assets have declined by $13 billion (1.4%).
ICI's Portfolio Holdings for Jan. 2014 show that Holdings of Certificates of Deposits jumped by $48.4 billion (after falling $25.9 billion in Dec.) to $578.2 billion (23.7%), making CDs the largest of composition segments. Repos declined by $16.5 billion, or 3.3%, (after rising $43.0 billion in Dec. and falling $23.7 billion in Nov. and $15.1 billion in Oct.) to $484.6 billion (19.9% of assets). Repo was the second largest segment of taxable money fund portfolio holdings according to ICI's data series. Treasury Bills & Securities, the third largest segment, showed a decrease of $43.8 billion (after an increase of $18.7 billion the month before) to $452.4 billion (18.5%).
Commercial Paper, which increased by $4.3 billion, or 1.2%, moved up to the fourth largest segment just ahead of U.S. Government Agency Securities. CP holdings totaled $362.2 billion (14.8% of assets) while Agencies fell by $6.4 billion to $360.7 billion (14.8%). Notes (including Corporate and Bank) fell by $264 million to $103.5 billion (4.2% of assets), and Other holdings rose by $347 million to $78.4 billion (3.2%).
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's Holdings series for taxable money funds decreased by 214,083 to 23.905 million, while the Number of Funds fell by 1 to 381. 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 lengthened by 1 day to 48 days in Jan. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds remain unchanged at 48 days.
Note: Crane Data has updated its February MFI XLS to reflect the 1/31/14 composition data and maturity breakouts for our entire fund universe. Note again too that we are now producing a "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.)
