Money Fund Assets Rebound
Money fund assets increased for the second week in the past 3, breaking a 7-week losing streak. ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" release says, "Total money market fund assets increased by $16.47 billion to $2.59 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, May 7, the Investment Company Institute reported today. Among taxable money market funds, treasury funds (including agency and repo) increased by $6.96 billion and prime funds increased by $7.37 billion. Tax-exempt money market funds increased by $2.14 billion. Assets of retail money market funds increased by $5.30 billion to $906.64 billion. Treasury money market fund assets in the retail category increased by $1.88 billion to $201.36 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $2.20 billion to $517.37 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $1.22 billion to $187.91 billion. Assets of institutional money market funds increased by $11.16 billion to $1.68 trillion. Among institutional funds, treasury money market fund assets increased by $5.08 billion to $712.74 billion, prime money market fund assets increased by $5.16 billion to $899.97 billion, and tax-exempt fund assets increased by $920 million to $71.20 billion." Year-to-date, money fund assets have declined by $128 billion, or 4.7%. This compares to a decline of $122 billion through the first week in May in 2013 and a decline of $126 billion through the first week of May in 2012. In both previous years, money fund assets rose through the remaining 7 1/2 months of the year and ended the year positive. We expect MMF assets to continue this pattern in 2014.
