The Investment Company Institute, the trade association for mutual funds, released its latest monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" report yesterday, which confirms that MMF assets inched higher last month after breaking the $3.0 trillion level in December. Assets increased by $8.2 billion in January to $3.045 trillion. This follows an increase of $71.8 billion in December, $80.4 billion in November, and $21.4 billion in October. In the 12 months through Jan. 31, 2019, money fund assets have increased by $245.7 billion, or 8.8%. We review ICI latest monthly statistics below.
The monthly "Trends" report states, "The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $946.60 billion, or 5.3 percent, to $18.65 trillion in January, according to the Investment Company Institute's official survey of the mutual fund industry. In the survey, mutual fund companies report actual assets, sales, and redemptions to ICI."
It explains, "Bond funds had an inflow of $14.41 billion in January, compared with an outflow of $65.56 billion in December.... Money market funds had an inflow of $4.37 billion in January, compared with an inflow of $68.95 billion in December. In January, funds offered primarily to institutions had an inflow of $6.77 billion and funds offered primarily to individuals had an outflow of $2.40 billion."
The latest statistics shows that Taxable MMFs gained assets, but Tax Exempt MMFs lost assets last month. Taxable MMFs increased by $12.7 billion in January to $2.905 trillion. Tax-Exempt MMFs decreased $4.6 billion in January to $140.7 billion. Taxable MMF assets increased year-over-year by $242.4 (9.1%) while Tax-Exempt funds rose by $3.3 billion over the past year (2.4%). Bond fund assets increased by $71.6 billion in January (1.8%) to $4.133 trillion; they've risen by $39.7 billion (1.0%) over the past year.
Money funds represent 16.3% of all mutual fund assets (down from 17.2% the previous month), while bond funds account for 22.2%, according to ICI. The total number of money market funds was 367, down from 368 in December, and down from 380 a year ago. Taxable money funds numbered 286 funds, and tax-exempt money funds remained at 81 funds.
ICI also released its latest "Month-End Portfolio Holdings of Taxable Money Funds," which confirmed yet another jump in Repo in January. Repurchase Agreements remained in first place among composition segments; they increased by $17.4 billion, or 1.7%, to $1.036 trillion, or 35.7% of holdings. Repo holdings have risen by $143.9 billion, or 16.1%, over the past year.
Treasuries, though, slipped by $82.8 billion, or -9.5%, to $790.3 billion, or 27.2% of holdings. However, Treasury securities have increased by $94.7 billion over the past 12 months, or 13.6%. U.S. Government Agency securities were the third largest segment; they gained $2.2 billion, or 0.3%, to $646.5 billion, or 22.3% of holdings. Agency holdings have dropped by $61.2 billion, or -8.6%, over the past 12 months.
Certificates of Deposit (CDs) stood in fourth place; they grew by $30.0 billion, or 15.6%, to $222.1 billion (7.6% of assets). CDs held by money funds added $19.0 billion, or 9.3%, over 12 months. Commercial Paper remained in fifth place, up $14.4 billion, or 7.6%, to $203.1 billion (7.0% of assets). CP has increased by $39.5 billion, or 24.2%, over one year. Notes (including Corporate and Bank) were down by $130 million, or -1.8%, to $7.2 billion (0.2% of assets) and Other holdings decreased slightly to $10.8 billion.
The Number of Accounts Outstanding in ICI's series for taxable money funds increased by 389.0 thousand to 33.664 million, while the Number of Funds was down one to 286. Over the past 12 months, the number of accounts rose by 2.673 million and the number of funds decreased by 12. The Average Maturity of Portfolios was 29 days, down from 31 days in December. Over the past 12 months, WAMs of Taxable money funds have shortened by 1 day.
In other news, Crane Data published its latest Weekly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics and summary Tuesday, which tracks a shifting subset of our monthly Portfolio Holdings collection. The latest cut, with data as of Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, includes Holdings information from 60 money funds (up from 37 on Feb. 15, 2019), representing $1.108 trillion, compared to $606.00 billion on Feb. 15. That represents 36.0% of the $3.082 trillion in total money fund assets tracked by Crane Data. (For our latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings numbers, see our Feb. 12 News, "Feb. MF Portfolio Holdings: Repo, CD, CP, TD Jump; Treasuries Drop.")
Our latest Weekly MFPH Composition summary shows Government assets again dominated the holdings list with Repurchase Agreements (Repo) totaling $406.3 billion (a rise from $241.0 billion on Feb. 15), or 36.7% of holdings, Treasury debt totaling $390.4 billion (up from $210.0 billion), or 35.2%, and Government Agency securities totaling $181.2 billion (up from $102.5 billion), or 16.4%. Commercial Paper (CP) totaled $49.8 billion (up from $23.1 billion), or 4.5%, and Certificates of Deposit (CDs) totaled $47.4 billion (up from $15.2 billion), or 4.3%. A total of $17.8 billion or 1.6% was listed in the Other category (primarily Time Deposits) and VRDNs accounted for $15.2 billion, or 1.4%.
The Ten Largest Issuers in our Weekly Holdings product include: the US Treasury with $390.4 billion (35.2% of total holdings), Federal Home Loan Bank with $134.3B (12.1%), BNP Paribas with $52.5B (4.7%), RBC with $43.9B (4.0%), Federal Farm Credit Bank with $34.1B (3.1%), Societe Generale with $25.2B (2.3%), HSBC with $24.9B (2.2%), Credit Agricole with $24.0B (2.2%), JP Morgan with $20.3B (1.8%), and Wells Fargo with $19.6B (1.8%).
The Ten Largest Funds tracked in our latest Weekly Holdings update include: Fidelity Inv MM: Govt Port ($114.8 billion), Goldman Sachs FS Govt ($101.6B), BlackRock Lq FedFund ($87.6B), BlackRock Lq T-Fund ($64.3B), Goldman Sachs FS Trs Instruments ($57.4B), Morgan Stanley Inst Liq Govt ($55.8B), Dreyfus Govt Cash Mgmt ($54.4B), Fidelity Inv MM: MMkt Port ($51.1B), State Street Inst US Govt ($45.3B), and First American Govt Oblig ($42.4B). (Let us know if you'd like to see our latest domestic U.S. and/or "offshore" Weekly Portfolio Holdings collection and summary.)
