In a stunning reversal of recent patterns, tax-exempt money market funds amassed $4.64 billion of new cash as total net assets soared to $274.7 billion in the week ended July 9. That marked the second-highest inflow so far this year, says the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.
The inflows far surpass any activity tax-free money funds have seen recently. Last week outflows of $209.7 million slipped out of the funds and finished with $270.06 billion. That folloed $1.12 billion of outflows in the week ended June 25.
The only other time this year tax-free money funds saw similar inflows was when $5.79 billion poured in during in week ended Jan. 9, the largest inflows and largest one-week activity for year to date. The funds saw inflows of $608 million in the week of July 11 a year ago.
Outflows have mostly outpaced inflows for most of the year — including the week of April 30 when the funds saw an exodus of $4.80 billion, which capped off a three-week trend of significant losses that also included the exit of $3.77 billion in the week ended April 23 and $3.24 billion on April 16.q
The average, seven-day simple yield for the 437 reporting tax-free funds remained at 0.01% for the sixth week in a row, while the average maturity decreased one day to 29 days from last week.
The 1,078 taxable money funds gained $19.88 billion, more than recouping the $19.68 billion of outflows the funds lost last week. Total net assets finished at $2.26 trillion for the week ended July 10, compared with last week’s $2.24 trillion.
The, seven-day yield for the taxable funds remained at 0.03% for the 23rd consecutive week, while the average maturity remained at 45 days.
Overall, the combined assets of the 1,515 money funds reporting settled at $2.537 trillion for the week ended July 10 after the arrival of $24.52 billion of inflows. The previous week saw outflows of $19.89 billion and net finished at $2.512 trillion.
