Crane Data published its latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics Tuesday, which track a shifting subset of our monthly Portfolio Holdings collection. The most recent cut (with data as of May 29) includes Holdings information from 78 money funds (up 26 from a week ago), which represent $2.634 trillion (up from $1.835 trillion) of the $5.123 trillion (51.4%) in total money fund assets tracked by Crane Data. (Note that our Weekly MFPH are e-mail only and aren't available on the website. For our latest monthly Holdings, see our May 12 News, "May MF Portfolio Holdings: Treasuries Skyrocket, Repo Plunges in April.)
Our latest Weekly MFPH Composition summary again shows Government assets dominating the holdings list with Treasury totaling $1.395 trillion (up from $829.5 billion a week ago), or 53.0%, Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $592.9 billion (up from $460.8 billion a week ago), or 22.5% and Government Agency securities totaling $440.5 billion (up from $333.0 billion), or 16.7%. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $72.6 billion (up from $57.0 billion), or 2.8% and Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $62.5 billion (down from $63.7 billion), or 2.4%. VRDNs accounted for $39.0 billion, or 1.5% and $31.2 billion or 1.2%, was listed in the Other category (primarily Time Deposits).
The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $1.395 trillion (53.0% of total holdings), Federal Home Loan Bank with $268.3B (10.2%), Fixed Income Clearing Co with $92.7B (3.5%), BNP Paribas with $70.5B (2.7%), Federal Farm Credit Bank with $65.9B (2.5%), Federal National Mortgage Association with $55.1B (2.1%), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp with $48.9B (1.9%), RBC with $46.7B (1.8%), JP Morgan with $44.4B (1.7%) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc with $28.0B (1.1%).
The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly include: Goldman Sachs FS Govt ($238.4B), JP Morgan US Govt ($218.2B), Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($189.1B), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($170.9B), JP Morgan 100% US Treas MMkt ($147.6B), Wells Fargo Govt MM ($136.2B), Goldman Sachs FS Treas Instruments ($131.2B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt ($114.1B), State Street Inst US Govt ($103.9B), Dreyfus Govt Cash Mgmt ($89.8B) and BlackRock Lq T-Fund ($86.3B). (Let us know if you'd like to see our latest domestic U.S. and/or "offshore" Weekly Portfolio Holdings collection and summary, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data series.)
In other news, the website ETF Strategy tells us that, "BlackRock expands Treasury bond suite with ultra-short ETF." They write, "BlackRock has expanded its suite of US Treasury bond ETFs with a new fund providing ultra-short duration exposure. The iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) has listed on NYSE Arca and comes with an expense ratio of 0.07%."
The piece explains, "The fund is linked to the ICE 0-3 Month US Treasury Securities Index which consists of fixed-rate US Treasury bills, notes, and bonds with maturities of three months or less. Inflation-linked and floating rate debt, as well as STRIPS (Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal of Securities), are not eligible for inclusion. The fund becomes the lowest-cost fund in its category of ultra-short Treasury bond ETFs -- those consisting of securities with less than one year to maturity."
ETF Strategy comments, "The largest funds in the category are the $24.4bn iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (SHV US), which comes with an expense ratio of 0.15%; the $18.5bn SPDR Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (BIL US), which has an expense ratio of 0.13%; and the $3.5bn Goldman Sachs Access Treasury 0-1 Year ETF (GBIL US), which costs 0.14%. The ETF may appeal to investors seeking low-cost, liquid exposure to Treasuries in order to protect their portfolios from potential future volatility."
BlackRock's Steve Laipply comments, "iShares is committed to providing investors with the tools they need to build resilient bond portfolios, the importance of which has been reinforced as investors sought safe havens in recent volatile markets.... We've seen more than $26 billion in flows across the suite of iShares short-term bond ETFs year-to-date. The addition of SGOV to our US Treasury and shorter maturity suites offers precise exposure for increased stability, liquidity, and cash management."
The piece adds, "According to BlackRock, bond ETFs played an indispensable role in markets during the unprecedented volatility, dislocation, and challenges in liquidity caused by the Covid-19 sell-off. In the first quarter of 2020, bond ETFs registered trading volumes of $1.3 trillion globally, half the trading volume recorded for the whole of 2019. During this time, BlackRock notes that bond ETFs provided price discovery, helped investors understand rapidly changing market conditions, and provided a benchmark reference for returns, volatility, and sentiment."
An updated Prospectus Supplement for Wells Fargo Money Market Fund tells us, "Effective August 15, 2019, Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC ('Funds Management'), the investment manager to the Fund, has implemented a temporary voluntary fee waiver of 0.07% for the Fund's Premier Class shares. This voluntary fee waiver is in addition to the Fund's current contractual fee waiver, which caps Premier Class expenses at 0.20% through May 31, 2021.... This additional voluntary fee waiver may be discontinued by Funds Management at any time without notice. Please note that the removal of the voluntary waiver will lead to increased expenses which will impact the Fund's yield."
Finally, a new Supplement for the American Beacon U.S. Government Money Market Select Fund says, "Effective May 29, 2020, direct mutual fund accounts will no longer be offered to new shareholders of the American Beacon U.S. Government Money Market Select Fund (the 'Fund'), a series of American Beacon Select Funds (the 'Trust')."
It adds, "Existing direct mutual fund account shareholders will continue to be able to buy or sell shares through their existing direct mutual fund accounts, but will no longer be able to open new direct mutual fund accounts. American Beacon Advisors, Inc. (the 'Manager') may allow the following individuals to open new direct mutual fund accounts in its sole discretion: (i) employees of the Manager, or its direct parent company, Resolute Investment Managers, Inc., (ii) employees of a sub-advisor to a fund in the American Beacon Funds Complex, (iii) members of the Board of Trustees of the Trust, (iv) employees of Kelso & Company, L.P. or Estancia Capital Management, LLC, the Manager’s indirect parent companies, and (v) members of the Manager's Board of Directors. This information hereby supersedes and replaces any contrary information included in the Fund's summary prospectus, prospectus, and statement of additional information."
