US money market fund assets fell this week but held above $3 trillion as investors shifted some cash back into stock and bond funds away from ultrasafe assets, the Money Fund Report said on Wednesday. Money funds, which are seen as alternatives to bank accounts, recorded $8.40 billion in outflows, totalling $3.007 trillion in the week ended Jan. 29, according to the report, published by iMoneyNet.
Earlier this month, money fund assets climbed to $3.029 trillion, which was the highest since March 2010. Taxable money market fund assets declined $6.30 billion to $2.864 trillion, while tax-free assets decreased by $2.10 billion to $142.49 billion. The Investment Company Institute on Wednesday said a combined $9.23 billion flowed into stock, bond and commodity mutual and exchange-traded funds in the week ended Jan. 23.
This was the third straight week of inflows, reversing some of the heavy outflows at the end of 2018 on worries about a global economic slowdown and the trade conflict between China and United States. iMoneyNet's average seven-day simple yield on all taxable money funds was 2.04 percent for a second week, while the average seven-day yield on tax-free and municipal money funds edged up to 0.91 percent from 0.90 percent the week before.