Crane Index
Our Crane Index service is designed for cash managers to benchmark their investment performance. For those that don''t need the full fund listings of Money Fund Intelligence, the index service delivers daily, monthly and historical Crane Money Fund Indexes. The service includes:
- Crane 100 Money Fund Index - Daily e-mail or RSS feed of our flagship index.
- Crane Money Fund Average - Monthly net and gross yield and return information on our most comprehensive average.
- Institutional and Individual - Receive our monthly indexes by Type from Money Fund Intelligence, including Prime Institutional, Treasury Individual, etc.
- Tax-Exempt and AAA Rated - Also get our Tax-Exempt, including State indexes, as well as our AAA Rated Money Fund Index.
- Crane Web Access and Corporate - Includes our website search and archives, as well as our Crane Corporate product.
How are you doing? Let your people know with the new standard in performance benchmarking, the Crane Index. E-mail us for our index definitions and for the latest numbers, or sign up now!
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Crane Index News
The April issue of our Money Fund Intelligence and Crane Index publications show that money market fund yields continued to decline in March. The benchmark Crane 100 Money Fund Index fell 51 basis points (0.51%) to 2.76% (7-day simple yield) in the month ended March 31, 2008. This index has fallen 173 bps since Dec. 31, 2007, and has fallen 224 bps (from 5.00%) since March 31, 2007. The Crane 100 Index returned the following for March 2008: 1-month (0.25%), 3-mo (0.89%), YTD (0.89%), 1-Year (4.65%), 3-Yr (4.35%), 5-Yr (3.04%), and 10-Yr (3.60%). Its 30-Day yield was 2.96% as of month-end.
The broader Crane Money Fund Average, which tracks 861 taxable money market mutual funds, yielded 2.26% (7-day) and 2.52% (30-day) as of March 31, down 61 bps (its 7-day yield) from a month earlier and down 263 bps from a year earlier. The Crane Institutional MF Index declined 60 bps to 2.56% and the Crane Individual MF Index declined 63 bps to 2.08% in March. Our Crane Tax Exempt Index fell 50 bps to 1.86%.
During the month, the Federal funds target rate was reduced from 3.00 to 2.25 percent. Brokerage cash and bank rates also declined during the month, though the former is starting to slow its descent (due to some rates approaching zero). Our monthly Crane Brokerage Cash Index fell to 1.80% (down 29 bps), and our Crane Top Bank MM Index fell by 31 bps to 3.35%. For more details on the Crane Indexes or to request a copy of our monthly Crane Index product, e-mail Pete or call 1-508-439-4419. (You can also type "ALLX CRNI" to see the list of Crane Indexes available on the Bloomberg(r) Professional service.)
Crane 100 Return 5% in 2007; Indexes Continue Lower in December. Money market mutual funds, as measured by the Crane 100 Money Fund Index, returned 5.01% for calendar 2007. The Crane 100 returned 0.38% in December, 1.18% for Q4'07, and returned an annualized rate of 4.24% over 3 years, 2.90% over 5 years, and 3.64% over 10 years through December 31, 2007. The Crane 100 began 2007 with a 7-day annualized current yield of 4.98% (and spend the first half of the year there) and ended the year yielding 4.49%. For calendar 2007, the broad Crane Money Fund Average returned 4.79%; the Crane Institutional MF Index returned 5.09%; the Crane Individual MF Index returned 4.62%; and, the Crane Tax Exempt MF Index returned 3.17%. Among subcategories, the Crane Prime Institutional MF Index returned 5.23% and the Prime Individual Index returned 4.78% in 2007. Average maturities of money funds decreased in December, with the Crane 100 AM (average maturity) declining from 41 to 38 days on average. (AM measures the average length of time for a money fund portfolio to turn over.) See the January issue of our Crane Index or Money Fund Intelligence for a full listing of index returns by category.
Crane 100 Money Fund Index Continues March Downward in November. Crane Data's flagship benchmark Crane 100 Money Fund Index, an average 7-day yield (simple) of the 100 largest taxable money market mutual funds, declined by 23 basis points in November, from 4.79% on Oct. 31 to 4.56% Nov. 30. The daily index (available on Bloomberg, symbol 'CRNI100D') has continued drifting lower in December. It was 4.54% as of Dec. 4. The Crane 100 had been at 5.00% as of July 31, 2007, prior to the credit crisis, rose to 5.04% as of Aug. 31, then fell to 4.95% as of Sept. 30. Money market mutual fund yields should continue their downward trend once, if as expected, the Federal Reserve lowers its Fed funds target rate from its current 4.5% level on Tuesday. E-mail Pete for a copy of our Crane Index product, which includes a number of additional cash benchmarks, or for a list of funds that make up the Crane 100.
Bloomberg Adds Crane 100 Money Fund Index and Crane Averages. Starting today, users of the Bloomberg Professional service now may access current and historical data on the Crane 100 Money Fund Index, Crane Data LLC's flagship average yield benchmark measuring the 100 largest taxable money market mutual funds. Bloomberg users will also have access to monthly performance data on the Crane Money Fund Average, which tracks a broader universe of 780 taxable money funds, and the Crane Tax Exempt Money Fund Index, which tracks 405 tax-free and municipal money funds. The list of indexes and data points available may be seen by Bloomberg users that enter "ALLX CRNI", and the Crane 100 is ticker "CRNI100D". Contact Pete for a listing of all indexes and for sample of our monthly Crane Index product.