Investors and companies withdrew huge sums of cash from their money market accounts to make their annual tax payments ahead of the April 15th deadline, according to a private report released on Wednesday. Domestic money market fund assets tumbled by $53.19 billion, which was their biggest weekly decline in about 10 months to $3.016 trillion in the week ended April 16, the Money Fund Report said.
"The decline was driven primarily by personal and corporate tax deadlines," it said in a statement. Total money fund assets were below a nine-year high of $3.071 trillion set in March. Taxable money market fund assets decreased by $48.01 billion to $2.883 trillion, while tax-free assets fell by $5.18 billion to $133.84 billion, according to the report, published by iMoneyNet.
The average seven-day simple yield on taxable money-market funds was unchanged at 2.06%. The weighted average maturities (WAM) of taxable money funds increased by one day to 31 days, iMoneyNet said. The average seven-day simple yield on tax-free and municipal money funds climbed to 1.16% from 1.09% the week before. The WAM on tax-free funds was unchanged at 25 days.