Money market funds saw record inflows even as stocks continued their climb to fresh highs
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Total assets in money market funds have hit a new record high, according to the latest data from the Investment Company Institute. The funds, which still have yields above 5%, saw total assets hit $6.06 trillion for the week ended Feb. 28, the firm said . “Money fund assets continue drawing cash from lower-yielding bank deposits, and institutional money funds have been growing faster due to concerns over uninsured deposits and New York Community Bancorp ,” said Peter Crane, founder of Crane Data, a firm that tracks money markets. “Assets should continue higher though they should pause for the upcoming March 15 and April 15 tax dates,” he added. New York Community Bancorp’s troubles include January’s surprise fourth-quarter loss and dividend cut. Last week, the bank reported ” material weaknesses ” in the way it reviewed its portfolio of loans due to poor oversight. On Friday, Fitch Ratings downgraded NYCB to junk. Moody’s had downgraded the bank to junk last month and on Friday further lowered all long-term and some short-term ratings and assessments. While some on Wall Street think some of the cash in money markets will move into stocks, Crane has said there is no correlation between the two. Instead, money markets are competing with bank deposits, he believes. In fact, stocks hit new highs last week, with the S & P 500 closing above 5,100 for the first time on Friday. .SPX YTD mountain S & P 500 year to date JPMorgan also thinks the majority of the assets in money market funds are cash savings for retail investors or core liquidity for companies. The bank believes that only about $500 billion is susceptible to “flight risk.” “Regardless of what other markets are doing, that money is here to stay,” analyst Teresa Ho told CNBC last month. Meanwhile, Crane said that while yields will come down this year, they will still be quite attractive. The annualized seven-day yield on the Crane 100 list of the 100 largest taxable money funds is currently 5.14%. That’s down from the 5.20% high at the end of last year but up from 0.17% on Dec. 31, 2021, according to Crane Data. Crane anticipates yields won’t go below 4% by the end of 2024.
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