The May edition of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence XLS, our monthly spreadsheet that tracks money fund statistics and performance, shows that money fund yields inched higher for the second month in a row in April. MFI XLS also showed that assets fell by over $100 billion for the second month in a row. It also showed that repo holdings declined and the the percent of holdings maturing in 7 days jumped during the month.
The Crane 100 Money Fund Index, a simple average of the largest taxable money funds, 7-Day Yield increased to 0.06% as of April 30 from 0.05% at the end of March and a record low 0.04% at the end of February. The Crane 100 30-Day Yield (annualized) also rose to 0.06%. Its 1-month return (unannualized) was 0.00%; its 3-month return was 0.01%; its YTD return was 0.02%; its 1-year return was 0.13%; its 3-year annualized return was 2.02%; its 5-year return was 2.93%; and its 10-year return was 2.71%.
Our broaded Crane Money Fund Average yielded 0.03% as of April 30, while our Crane Institutional MF Index yielded 0.05% and our Crane Retail MF Index yielded 0.01%. The Crane Tax-Exempt MF Index yielded 0.05%, up from 0.04% a month earlier. (For more Crane Money Fund Indexes, ask to see our Money Fund Intelligence, MFI XLS or Crane Index products, or type 'ALLX CRNI' on a Bloomberg terminal.)
MFI shows money fund assets declined by $113.1 billion, or 4.0%, in April to $2.703 trillion. This follows a decline of $159.2 billion in March, and marks the 14th month out of the past 15 that assets have declined. Year-to-date, money funds assets have decreased by $481.8 billion, or 15.1%, and over 12 months, money fund assets have decreased by $872.1 billion, or 24.4%. Government and Treasury funds continue to lead the declines -- Government (including Treasury) assets declined by 8.0% in April and have declined by 40.9% over 12 months to $476.7 billion.
Crane's MFI XLS Portfolio Composition averages show Repo holdings fell from 25% to 22% in April, while Government securities holdings increased to 20% from 19%, Treasury holdings increased from 16% to 18%, and CP holdings increased from 12 to 13%. CDs remained at 15%, ABCP fell to 4%, FRNs rose to 4%, Corp holdings remained at 2%, MTNs were at 1%, and "Other" was at 2%. Crane Data's % Maturing in 7 Days statistics show the average fund's weekly liquidity rising to 42% from 39% a month earlier.
ICI's separate Portfolio Holdings series, which covers data through March, showed that CDs (at 19.2%, or $502.7 billion) regained the largest money fund holding spot from Repo (which fell from 19.9% to 17.2%, or $449.3 billion). Government Agency securities became the 2nd largest holding with 18.1% (up from 17.4%), or $474.9 billion, while Commercial Paper took the No. 3 spot, rising to 17.5% from 17.2% in March ($457.4 billion). Treasury securities held by taxable money funds totalled $382.5 billion, or 14.6%.
