ICI published its latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report Thursday, which shows money fund assets surging $66.1 billion in the first week of the New Year to a record $6.916 trillion, after jumping $42.1 billion in the last week of 2024. Money fund assets have risen in 17 of the last 23, and 28 of the last 38, weeks, increasing by $612.9 billion (or 9.7%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $939.0 billion (or 15.7%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $941 billion, or 15.8%, in the past 52 weeks (through 1/8/25), with Institutional MMFs up $516 billion, or 14.2% and Retail MMFs up $426 billion, or 18.3%. ICI's weekly release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $66.08 billion to $6.92 trillion for the eight-day period ended Wednesday, January 8, the Investment Company Institute reported.... Among taxable money market funds, government funds increased by $47.45 billion and prime funds increased by $15.40 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $3.23 billion." ICI's stats show Institutional MMFs increasing $43.5 billion and Retail MMFs increasing $22.5 billion in the latest week. Total Government MMF assets, including Treasury funds, were $5.683 trillion (82.2% of all money funds), while Total Prime MMFs were $1.094 trillion (15.8%). Tax Exempt MMFs totaled $138.9 billion (2.0%). It explains, "Assets of retail money market funds increased by $22.53 billion to $2.76 trillion. Among retail funds, government money market fund assets increased by $10.94 billion to $1.76 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $8.82 billion to $873.48 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $2.77 billion to $127.28 billion." Retail assets account for over a third of total assets, or 39.9%, and Government Retail assets make up 63.7% of all Retail MMFs. They add, "Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $43.54 billion to $4.16 trillion. Among institutional funds, government money market fund assets increased by $36.51 billion to $3.93 trillion, prime money market fund assets increased by $6.57 billion to $220.59 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $461 million to $11.67 billion." Institutional assets accounted for 60.1% of all MMF assets, with Government Institutional assets making up 94.4% of all institutional MMF totals. According to Crane Data's separate Money Fund Intelligence Daily series, money fund assets have risen by $60.8 billion in January through 1/8/25 to $7.235 trillion. (They hit a record high on 1/7 at $7.266 trillion before inching lower on Wednesday.) Assets rose by $110.9 billion in December, $200.5 trillion in November, $97.5 billion in October, $149.8 billion in September, $109.7 billion in August, $16.6 billion in July, $15.7 billion in June and $91.4 billion in May. They declined by $15.8 billion in April and $68.8 billion in March. They rose $72.1 billion in February and $93.9 billion last January. Note that ICI's asset totals don't include a number of funds tracked by the SEC and Crane Data, so they're about $340 billion lower than Crane's asset series.
