Muni Money Funds See Unusual Outflows As Hurricane Bears Down

Wary investors in the path of Hurricane Sandy contributed to the $1.10 billion of cash that flowed out of tax-exempt money market funds in the week ended Oct. 29.

According to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com, the larger than usual outflows caused total net assets to drop to $265.65 billion and came as many investors withdrew cash to prepare for the devastating storm, while others needed cash for month-end commitments. By comparison, last week the funds saw outflows of $679 million and settled with $266.74 billion.

The average, seven-day simple yield for the 438 tax-free money market funds remained at 0.01% for a 22nd week in row, while the average maturity remained at 38 days.

Meanwhile, worried investors contributed to a whopping $50.03 billion of outflows that escaped from the 1,058 taxable funds in the week ended Oct. 30 -- the day after the storm battered the Northeast – and caused total net assets to decline to $2.242 trillion. In the prior week, by comparison, taxable funds saw the arrival of $6.78 billion of inflows as total net assets grew to $2.292 trillion.

The average, seven-day simple yield for the taxable funds remained at 0.02% for the second week in a row, while the average maturity increased by one day to 50 days.

Overall, the combined assets of the 1,496 money funds suffered losses of $51.13 billion in the week ended Oct. 30 as total net assets decreased to $2.507 trillion. That pales in comparison to the previous week when the arrival of $6.10 billion of inflows the boosted total net assets to $2.559 trillion.

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