Money market mutual fund assets dropped sharply on Tuesday and in the latest week, according to Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence Daily and ICI's weekly Money Market Mutual Fund Assets. ICI's latest statistics show that assets dropped by almost $50 billion the past week, while our MFI Daily shows a drop of $51.9 billion, with over half of the drop occurring on Tuesday (down $28.8 billion). MFI Daily showed assets falling by $15.9 billion on Friday and $8.8 billion on Wednesday too. Money fund assets normally drop on the 15th of each month due to payroll and various tax payments, and they also decline on long weekends and Treasury auction dates; all of these were present the past week. The decline was the biggest since the week ended Oct. 16, 2013 (also a long weekend that included the 15th of the month).
ICI's weekly says, "Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $49.17 billion to $2.664 trillion for the week ending Wednesday, February 19, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Taxable government funds decreased by $17.27 billion, taxable non-government funds decreased by $32.22 billion, and tax-exempt funds increased by $1.33 billion." Year-to-date, money fund assets have declined by $55 billion, or 2.0%, with Institutional funds falling $46 billion (2.6%) and Retail assets falling $9 billion (1.0%).
Their release continues, "Assets of retail money market funds decreased by $2.50 billion to $920.12 billion. Taxable government money market fund assets in the retail category increased by $130 million to $199.58 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets decreased by $2.43 billion to $525.75 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets decreased by $210 million to $194.79 billion."
ICI adds, "Assets of institutional money market funds decreased by $46.66 billion to $1.744 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable government money market fund assets decreased by $17.41 billion to $742.64 billion, taxable non-government money market fund assets decreased by $30.79 billion to $924.91 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.54 billion to $76.11 billion. ICI reports money market fund assets to the Federal Reserve each week."
Crane's MFI Daily shows the largest declines were experienced by the following funds on Tuesday (Feb. 18) (we also show the Symbol, fund size, and daily change in billions): JPMorgan Prime MM Capital (CJPXX, $62.8B, down $4.1B), Wells Fargo Adv Heritage Sel (WFJXX, $27.7B, down $2.7B), BlackRock Lq TempFund In (TMPXX, $49.6B, down $1.9B), Goldman Sachs FS MM Admin (FADXX, $28.7B, down $1.8B), Fidelity Instit MM: Prime MMP I (FIDXX, $37.3B, down $1.8B), JPMorgan US Govt MM Capital (OGVXX, $24.1B, down $1.7), First American Govt Obligs Z (FGZXX, $6.2B, down $1.6B), Federated Prime ObIigations IS (POIXX, $42.5B, down 1.5B), Dreyfus Instit Cash Adv Inst (DADXX, $30.2B, down 1.3B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt Inst (MVRXX, $26.6B, down $1.1B), JPMorgan US Govt MM Agency (OGAXX, $7.4B, down $1.1B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Prime Inst (MPFXX, $22.0B, down $914M), and JPMorgan US Trs Plus MM Inst (IJTXX, $5.7B, down $909M).
