Money Market News
State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) writes that "Cash Is Both Shield and Sword" in its latest "Q2 2025 Cash Outlook." Portfolio Strategist Will Goldthwait explains, "Throughout history, financial crises have repeatedly taught a crucial lesson: survival favors the cautious. In times of heightened economic uncertainty, the prudent course is often to hold more cash and wait for calmer markets. Cash not only provides liquidity and security during volatile periods, but also grants the flexibility to seize opportunities when asset prices eventually correct. Historically, those who maintained unleveraged positions and proactively de-risked their portfolios were the ones best positioned to endure market turmoil and emerge stronger on the other side."
Crane Data's April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings, with data as of March 31, 2025, show that holdings of Repo jumped sharply last month while Treasuries declined. Money market securities held by Taxable U.S. money funds (tracked by Crane Data) increased by $45.6 billion to $7.272 trillion in March, after increasing $53.7 billion in February, $84.1 billion in January, and $88.0 billion in December. They rose by $190.8 billion in November, $82.8 billion in October and $233.8 billion in September. Treasuries, the largest segment, decreased $83.3 billion in March. Repo, the second largest portfolio composition segment, increased by $92.7 billion. Agencies were the third largest segment, CP remained fourth, ahead of CDs, Other/Time Deposits and VRDNs. Below, we review our Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics. (Visit our Content center to download, or contact us to request our latest Portfolio Holdings reports.)
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Portfolio Holdings statistics will be sent out Wednesday, and we'll be writing our regular monthly update on the new April data for Thursday's News. But we also already uploaded a separate and broader Portfolio Holdings data set based on the SEC's Form N-MFP filings on Tuesday. (We continue to merge the two series, and the N-MFP version is now available via our Portfolio Holdings file listings to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers.) Our new N-MFP summary, with data as of March 31, includes holdings information from 987 money funds (down 2 from last month), representing assets of $7.433 trillion (up from $7.388 trillion a month ago). Prime MMFs rose to $1.133 trillion (up from $1.107 trillion), or 15.2% of the total. We review the new N-MFP data, and we also look at our revised MMF expense data, which shows charged expenses were mostly flat and money fund revenues fell to $19.7 billion (annualized) in March.
Crane Data's latest monthly Money Fund Market Share rankings show assets mixed among most of the largest U.S. money fund complexes in March after rising in February, January, December, November, October, September, August, July, June and May. Assets fell in April and last March. Money market fund assets fell by $3.6 billion, or -0.0%, last month to $7.326 trillion. Total MMF assets have increased by $145.3 billion, or 2.0%, over the past 3 months, and they've increased by $922.4 billion, or 14.4%, over the past 12 months. The largest increases among the 25 largest managers last month were seen by Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab, Invesco and UBS, which grew assets by $21.7 billion, $16.8B, $16.5B, $9.4B and $2.2B, respectively. Declines in March were seen by SSGA, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and First American, which decreased by $14.4 billion, $11.1B, $9.1B and $8.2B, respectively. Our domestic U.S. "Family" rankings are available in our MFI XLS product, our global rankings are available in our MFI International product. The combined "Family & Global Rankings" are available to Money Fund Wisdom subscribers. We review the latest market share totals, and look at money fund yields, which were slightly lower in March.
The April issue of our flagship Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which was sent to subscribers Monday morning, features the articles: "Money Market ETFs Now a Thing: Schwab Joins BlackRock," which discusses the recent launches of and news in the MM ETF space; "Bond Fund Symposium '25 Focus on Ultra-Shorts, ETFs," which looks at our recent conference in Newport Beach; and, "Worldwide MMFs Rise in Q4 to Record $11.6 Tril.; US, Lux" which reviews ICI's Worldwide fund totals. We also sent out our MFI XLS spreadsheet Monday a.m., and we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database with 3/31/24 data. Our April Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to ship on Wednesday, April 9, and our April Bond Fund Intelligence is scheduled to go out on Monday, April 14.
The Investment Company Institute's weekly and Crane Data's daily money fund asset series both hit new records as of Wednesday, April 2. ICI's latest "Money Market Fund Assets" report shows money fund assets rising $17.6 billion to $7.032 trillion, after rising $11.8 billion the week prior and falling $21.8 billion two weeks ago. Money fund assets have risen in 24 of the last 35, and 35 of the last 50 weeks, increasing by $728.1 billion (or 11.6%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $1.054 trillion (or 17.6%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $920 billion, or 15.1%, in the past 52 weeks (through 4/2/25), with Institutional MMFs up $465 billion, or 12.6% and Retail MMFs up $455 billion, or 18.7%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $181 billion, or 2.6%, with Institutional MMFs up $32 billion, or 0.8% and Retail MMFs up $149 billion, or 5.5%.
Today, we continue to quote from our recent Bond Fund Symposium conference, which was held late last week in Newport Beach, Calif. The "Senior Portfolio Manager Perspectives" featured Crane Data's Peter Crane moderating a session with BlackRock's Richard Mejzak, UBS Asset Management's Dave Rothweiler and Federated Hermes' Nicholas Tripodes. We first asked Mejzak about BlackRock's recent launch of Money Market ETFs. He tells us, "They're on the smaller side. However, the growth has, I think, exceeded expectations thus far.... This is not your father's money market business.... Clearly, the market's evolving in this space." (Note: Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.")
Late last week, we hosted our latest Crane's Bond Fund Symposium in Newport Beach, Calif. The keynote talk, "Ultra‐Short Bond Funds: Surf's Finally Up," featured J.P. Morgan Securities' Teresa Ho, PIMCO's Jerome Schneider and J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Dave Martucci. Ho explains, "What we're going to do ... is just give a high-level review of the short-term bond fund space from a performance perspective, flows, asset allocation. I'll ask Jerome and Dave to weigh in on some of these topics and for them to give a sense of some of the things that they're seeing and what they're thinking about, and after that I'll follow up with a brief comment on other ultra-short investors." (Note: Thanks again to those who supported BFS! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.")
Federated Hermes' Deborah Cunningham writes on "The New Magnificent Seven" in her latest monthly commentary. Subtitled, "Total US money fund assets push past $7 trillion again," the piece states, "The growth of money market mutual funds since the Federal Reserve first hiked rates in 2022 has been something to behold. Not as thrilling as Akira Kurasawa's 'Seven Samurai' and John Sturges' beloved adaptation, 'The Magnificent Seven,' or as trendy as the Mag 7 tech behemoths. But with total US assets under management (AUM) again topping $7 trillion, just as spectacular." (Note: Thanks once more to those who supported our Bond Fund Symposium last week in Newport Beach! Watch for coverage in coming days and in our upcoming Money Fund Intelligence and Bond Fund Intelligence. Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.")
A press release titled, "ICE and Circle Sign MOU to Explore Product Innovation Based on Circle's USDC and USYC Digital Assets," tells us, "Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, and Circle Internet Group, Inc., a global financial technology company and stablecoin market leader, today announced an agreement whereby ICE plans to explore using Circle's stablecoin USDC, as well as tokenized money market offering US Yield Coin (USYC), to develop new products and solutions for its customers." (Note: Thanks again to those who supported our Bond Fund Symposium in Newport Beach! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.")
ICI published its latest weekly "Money Market Fund Assets" report, as well as its monthly "Trends in Mutual Fund Investing" for February 2025 Thursday. The weekly series shows money fund assets rising $11.8 billion to $7.014 trillion, after falling $21.8 billion the week prior and falling $1.4 billion two weeks ago. Money fund assets have risen in 23 of the last 34, and 34 of the last 49 weeks, increasing by $710.5 billion (or 11.3%) since the Fed cut on 9/18/24 and increasing by $1.037 trillion (or 17.3%) since 4/24/24. MMF assets are up by $973 billion, or 16.1%, in the past 52 weeks (through 3/26/25), with Institutional MMFs up $510 billion, or 14.0% and Retail MMFs up $463 billion, or 19.3%. Year-to-date, MMF assets are up by $164 billion, or 2.4%, with Institutional MMFs up $32 billion, or 0.8% and Retail MMFs up $132 billion, or 4.8%. (Note: Thank you to those who attended and supported our Bond Fund Symposium, which took place Thursday and Friday in Newport Beach! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings (we'll post these Monday) via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.")
The Investment Company Institute, the trade group for the mutual fund industry, published a press release entitled, "US Equity Fund Fees Continue to Decline Amid Rising Investor Demand for Lower-Cost Options," along with the report, "Trends in the Expenses and Fees of Funds, 2024." The full report tells us, "On an asset-weighted basis, average expense ratios incurred by mutual fund investors have fallen substantially over the past 28 years.... In 1996, equity mutual fund investors incurred expense ratios of 1.04 percent, on average, or $1.04 for every $100 in assets. By 2024, that average had fallen to 0.40 percent. Average expense ratios of hybrid and bond mutual funds, as well as money market funds, have also declined meaningfully since 1996." (Note: Welcome to those attending our Bond Fund Symposium Thursday and Friday in Newport Beach! Attendees and Crane Data subscribers may access the conference binder, Powerpoints and recordings (after the show) via our "Bond Fund Symposium 2025 Download Center.")
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