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With money market fund assets continuing to hit record levels (assets broke $6.5 trillion last week), our next Money Fund Symposium, seems destined to break our pre-pandemic record of 570 attendees. Money Fund Symposium 2024 is scheduled for June 12-14, 2024 at The Westin Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, Pa. The full agenda for the largest gathering of money market fund managers and cash investors in the world is available and registrations are being taken. Money Fund Symposium attracts money fund managers, marketers and servicers, cash investors, money market securities dealers, issuers, and regulators. We review our latest agenda, as well as Crane Data's other 2024 conferences, below. (Note: We look forward to seeing those of you attending our Bond Fund Symposium next week in Philadelphia! Registrations are still being taken for the show, which is March 25-26. Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings (after the show) via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2024 Download Center.")

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The Wall Street Journal writes, "Sorry Stock Bulls, the 'Wall of Cash' Isn't All Headed Your Way" in its "Heard on the Street" column. They explain, "Trillions of dollars are seemingly available to move out of cash funds and be put to work in the stock market. That possibility has had stock-market bulls salivating, but they are probably in for disappointment. Despite the expectation that the Federal Reserve's next move is to cut rates, money-market-fund assets have continued to grow at a fast pace. They are now around $6.5 trillion, according to industry tracker Crane Data. While the S&P 500 is up 8% year to date, total money funds added more than $150 billion in assets through the first two months of 2024, or about $50 billion more than they did in the same period last year, according to Crane." (Note: We look forward to seeing you next week, March 25-26, at our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium in Philadelphia!)

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Crane Data's latest Money Fund Intelligence International shows that assets in European or "offshore" money market mutual funds moved higher again over the past 30 days to a record $1.242 trillion, while yields inched lower. Assets for EUR & GBP MMFs rose over the past month, while assets for USD MMFs fell. Last month, European MMF assets broke above last month's previous record high of $1.239 trillion. These U.S.-style money funds, domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg and denominated in US Dollars, Pound Sterling and Euros, increased by $3.8 billion over the 30 days through 3/13. The totals are up $45.2 billion (3.8%) year-to-date for 2024, they were up $166.9 billion (16.2%) for the year 2023. (Note that currency moves in the U.S. dollar cause Euro and Sterling totals to shift when they're translated back into totals in U.S. dollars. See our latest MFI International for more on the "offshore" money fund marketplace. These funds are only available to qualified, non-U.S. investors and are almost entirely institutional.)

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The March issue of our Bond Fund Intelligence, which will be sent to subscribers Wednesday morning, features the stories, "Corporate Bond Funds Get Hot, But Risks Are Rising," which follows the most recent news on investment grade funds and "EFAMA Says 2023 Big Year for Bond Funds, MMFs in Europe," which reviews recent monthly statistics on European bond funds. BFI also recaps the latest Bond Fund News and includes our Crane BFI Indexes, which show that bond fund returns fell in February while yields increased. We excerpt from the new issue below. (Contact us if you'd like to see our latest Bond Fund Intelligence and BFI XLS spreadsheet, or our Bond Fund Portfolio Holdings data.) (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 25-26 in Philadelphia!)

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The Federal Reserve released its latest quarterly "Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States" statistical survey (a.k.a. "Flow of Funds") late last week. Among the 4 tables it includes on money market mutual funds, the Fourth Quarter 2023 edition shows that Total MMF Assets increased by $215 billion to $6.358 trillion in Q4'23. The Household Sector, by far the largest investor segment with $3.806 trillion, saw the biggest asset increase in Q4, followed by Nonfinancial Corporate Businesses. The Fed's latest Z.1 numbers, which contain one of the few looks at money fund investor segments available, also showed noticeable increases for the Other Financial Business (formerly Funding Corps) and Mutual Funds categories in Q4 2023. (Note: There's still time to register for our Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 25-26 in Philadelphia. We hope to see you in Philly!)

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Crane Data's March Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of Feb. 29, 2024, show that Repo holdings plummeted while Treasuries and Time Deposits jumped. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) increased by $66.9 billion to $6.365 trillion, after increasing $86.6 in January, $51.1 billion in December and $244.0 billion in November. Assets decreased $57.9 billion in October, but increased $56.1 in September, $106.7 billion in August and $78.3 billion in July. Repo continued its steep slide, dropping $137.6 billion, after a brief rebound two months ago, falling to the No. 2 spot among portfolio segments. Treasuries increased by $206.2 billion, becoming the largest portfolio segment over Repo. The U.S. Treasury surpassed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as the largest Issuer to MMFs six months ago. In February, U.S. Treasury holdings jumped to $2.559 trillion vs. the Fed RRP's $464.6 billion (down $118.0 billion). Agencies were the third largest segment, CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs. Below, we review our latest Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics.

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Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be sent out Monday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the new February 29 data for Tuesday's News. But we also already uploaded a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings on Friday. (We continue to merge the two series, and the N-MFP version is now available via our Portfolio Holdings file listings to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Our new N-MFP summary, with data as of Feb. 29, includes holdings information from 969 money funds (up 1 from last month), representing record assets of $6.546 trillion (up from $6.479 trillion). Prime MMFs now total $1.397 trillion, or 21.3% of the total. We review the new N-MFP data, and we also look at our revised MMF expense data, which shows charged expenses flat and money fund revenues seeing another jump in February. (Note: Please join us for our upcoming Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 25-26 in Philadelphia. We hope to see you in Philly!)

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Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets increased again among most of the largest U.S. money fund complexes in February, after jumping in January. Money market fund assets rose by $50.0 billion, or 0.8%, last month to a record $6.458 trillion. Total MMF assets have increased by $171.1 billion, or 2.7%, over the past 3 months, and they've increased by $1.191 trillion, or 22.6%, over the past 12 months. The largest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by Schwab, Vanguard, JPMorgan, SSGA and Federated Hermes, which grew assets by $12.2 billion, $9.8B, $8.8B, $8.6B and $8.4B, respectively. Declines in February were seen by American Funds and First American, which decreased by $9.8 billion and $7.4B, respectively. Our domestic U.S. "Family" rankings are available in our MFI XLS product, our global rankings are available in our MFI International product. The combined "Family & Global Rankings" are available to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers. We review the latest market share totals, and look at money fund yields, which were flat to slightly lower in February.

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The March issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent out to subscribers Thursday morning, features the articles: "WisdomTree, XD Attempt Digital, Blockchain MMFs," which covers new money funds using blockchain technology; "FSB Reviews Global Money Fund Reforms; FHI's 10-K," which quotes from the regulatory discussion outside the U.S.; and, "Examining the Shift in Fed Repo to T-Bills, Other Repo," which reviews the dramatic shift in MMF portfolios. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Thursday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 2/29/24 data. Our March Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Monday, March 11, and our March Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Thursday, March 14. (Note: Register ASAP for our Bond Fund Symposium, which is March 25-26 in Philadelphia. We hope to see you in Philly!)

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The Banker recently published a story titled, "Uninsured deposits could pose a threat to financial stability," which is subtitled, "Nearly a year on from SVB's demise, regulators are still asking whether deposit insurance schemes are fit for purpose." It states, "The failure of Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023 has been described as a textbook case of a bank run. While bank runs have always been a feature of banking history, SVB's case brought into focus how highly concentrated business models and overreliance on uninsured deposits in banking can pose risks to financial stability. Both of these issues represented key vulnerabilities at SVB. Of the bank's total deposits, 93.8 percent were uninsured, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data as of year-end 2022. It mostly served clients in the tech sector. While SVB was an outlier in terms of its business strategy, to what extent could similar vulnerabilities affect other banks in the future?"

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J.P. Morgan's latest "Short-Term Market Outlook and Strategy" features a brief titled, "Corporates are keeping more cash in their portfolios." They write, "Based on balance sheet data from S&P 500 non-financial companies, we estimate corporate cash investment portfolios registered $2.3tn as of 4Q23. This is a year-over-year increase of $125bn, though still below the peak of $2.4-2.5tn observed shortly after the March Covid crisis. Even with lower portfolio balances relative to the Covid-era, it is notable that the amount of cash and cash equivalents held as a percentage of aggregate cash portfolios stood at 57% at YE23, surpassing the prior peak in 2020 when there was a dash for cash.... We are clearly not in any sort of crisis right now, which only underscores corporates' preference for cash in the current interest rate environment. As the $1tn rise in MMF AUMs last year demonstrated, market participants have a strong desire to park cash in MMFs."

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A press release titled, "XD Fund Advisor Introduces XD Treasury Money Market Fund, Seeking to Deliver Capital Preservation and Income Opportunities," explains, "XD Fund Advisor, an emerging mutual fund management start-up established in 2023, proudly announces the launch of the XD Treasury Money Market Fund. This innovative fund brings two distinctive share classes to investors: Institutional Class (IXDXX) and Investor Class (VXDXX)." (For more on Digital or Blockchain MMFs, see our Feb. 26 News, "WisdomTree Launches Digital Govt MMF; Tradias Tokenizes First Euro MF.)

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