The August issue of Crane Data's flagship Money Fund Intelligence was e-mailed to subscribers this morning. The latest newsletter features the articles "Looking at Money Fund Portfolio Composition," "Federated's Ochson Debunks Muni Myths," and "Clearwater, DB Launch M-Fund Transparency." MFI also includes the latest money fund news (in more detail than the website), indexes, performance, and statistics.
The monthly "Fund Profile" and manager interview features a discussion with Mary Jo Ochson, Senior portfolio manager and CIO of Federated Investors' Tax-Exempt Money Market Group. Ochson tells MFI readers about the new money fund eligible variable-rate demand preferreds (VRDPs) being issued by closed-end funds to retire auction-rate preferred securities (ARPS). She also addresses concerns over monoline insurers and discusses asset growth and other issues in the tax-free money fund marketplace.
As of July 31, the Crane Money Fund Average, our broadest measure of taxable money fund performance including 885 funds, remained unchanged yielding (7-day simple) 1.96%. The Crane 100 Index declined by 0.03% to 2.24% during July. The Crane Institutional MF Index fell 1 basis point to 2.23%, the Crane Individual MF Index was unchanged at 1.80%, and the Crane Tax-Exempt MF Index jumped 0.54% to 1.82%.
Through July 31, 2008, the Crane 100 Index returned 0.19% for one-month, 0.55% for 3 months, 1.68% YTD, 3.75% over 1-year, 4.31% over 3 years (annualized), 3.14% over 5 years, and 3.50% over 10 years. Its average maturity rose by one day to 45 days. To request the latest issue of Money Fund Intelligence or Crane Index, e-mail Pete Crane (pete@cranedata.us).
