Money market mutual fund assets rebounded strongly in the latest week, rising $60.83 billion to $3.519 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute's weekly series. For the week ended Oct. 16, Retail money fund assets increased by $26.83 billion to $1.285 trillion and Institutional assets increased by $34.01 billion to $2.234 billion. ICI tracks 2,029 funds in their weekly survey.
This marks the third week in a row that overall assets have increased and the first week that General Purpose ("Prime") Institutional assets have increased since Reserve Primary "broke the buck". Overall money fund assets have recovered $120.8 billion over the past three weeks, recouping almost two-thirds of the declines suffered in the weeks ended Sept. 17 and Sept. 24. Year-to-date, money fund assets have increased by $250.7 billion, or 11.9%, and over 52 weeks they have increased by $577 billion, or 19.6%.
Prime Institutional assets grew by $6.95 billion to $998.9 billion in the latest week, but they remain down sharply from their Sept. 10 record of $1.453 trillion. Government Institutional funds, including Treasury funds, continue raking in assets, though the rate slowed in the latest week. Govt Inst funds increased by $25.11 billion to $1.048 trillion. (They broke above the $1 trillion level last week.) Prime Retail funds increased by $12.4 billion to $710.81 billion and Government Retail funds increased by $9.41 billion to $274.43 billion.
Tax-Exempt money funds continued their rebound for the second week in a row. T-E Institutional funds increased by $1.95 billion to $186.47 billion and T-E Retail funds increased by $4.99 billion to $299.63 billion. Tax-exempt yields have declined sharply of late, following their surge to unprecedented levels vis-a-vis taxable funds. Our Crane Tax-Exempt Money Fund Index has fallen from a 5.25% yield as of Sept. 30 to a 2.80% yield as of Wednesday.
