The September issue of Crane Data's flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter ships to subscribers this morning. Our latest monthly contains articles on "Assets' Summer Bottom; Will Yields Re-Test Lows?," a discussion of the new trough in assets and falling yields; "OppenheimerFunds: Conservatively Competitive," our monthly profile which interviews Carol Wolf, Chris Proctor, and Jesse Levitt; and "The Mosaic Co.'s Crawford Speaks on Due Diligence," which excerpts from one corporate cash analyst's money fund monitoring strategies. The new MFI also contains performance data as of August 31, 2010 (on a shrinking universe of 1,254 money market funds), our benchmark Crane Money Fund Indexes, and a recap of the month's money fund news.
The lead piece in Money Fund Intelligence says, "The good news is that money fund assets appear to have formed a trough during the summer of 2010. After hitting a record of $3.92 trillion in January 2009, assets declined by almost $1.1 trillion, or 27.9%, over the next 15 months. Since May, however, assets have in effect been flat and appear to have stabilizing at their current $2.8 trillion level. The bad news is that yields, which had rebounded from a record low of 0.04% in February 2010 to 0.11% in mid-August, have begun inching downward again."
Our OppenheimerFunds profile quotes VP & Portfolio Manager Proctor, "We have enjoyed strong relative performance during the credit crisis and in this current low interest rate environment. We think the reason for this is because we continue to stick to our investment process that has been in place since Carol took over the group. The investment process is a formal delineation of responsibilities that we have between portfolio management, trading and credit. This is set up so that there isn't excessive risk taking from any one group in the pursuit of performance.... We admit that operating in this rate environment remains very difficult. We've seen outflows, like others, in our retail funds. Our institutional base has remained steady over this time."
Finally, our September issue says, "One of the sessions at our recent Crane's Money Fund Symposium was ... given by The Mosaic Company's Senior Cash Management Analyst Michael Crawford, who discussed one company's thinking and processes behind choosing money funds and cash investments. Mosaic, which is based in Plymouth, Minnesota, is 'the world's leading producer and marketer of concentrated phosphate and potash.' We excerpt from Crawford's comments."
Crawford told MFS, "As all of us are aware, the corporate investing landscape has changed dramatically in the last two years.... Partnering with money market portals can supply critical daily information to aid in monitoring.... Complementing [this] with appropriate industry intelligence [should] round out the due diligence process."
Let us know if you'd like to see the full issue of Money Fund Intelligence or if you'd like to see our latest Money Fund Intelligence XLS or Crane Index. (E-mail Assistant Editor Kaio Barbosa (kaio@cranedata.us) to request a sample.)
