As if money market funds hadnt been beaten up enough already this year, the week ending July 1 brought more pain to the sector. The week brought record lows for taxable money market fund yields and saw investors withdraw more than $15 billion from the funds, according to the Money Fund Report, Reuters reports.
The simple yield on taxable money funds dropped from 0.64% to 0.58% from the previous week. If reinvested dividends are included in the mix, yields dropped from 0.64% to 0.59% in the week.
The Federal Reserve recently cut interest rates by 25 basis points, the 13 th time the Fed has dropped rates since the bear market began. The cuts are an attempt to bolster economic growth, but have hurt money market funds as yields have been driven down as interest rates fell, leading investors to pull their cash out of the funds and put them somewhere with a better return. The most recent cut may force about 11% of the 1,748 U.S. money market funds to drop fees to keep their yields above the zero mark.
It is estimated that small investors were responsible for around $10 billion of the latest outflows; with analysts suggesting that its likely the money will be spent over the holiday weekend.
The Money Fund Report is published by
