Money-Fund Assets Climb
Assets in money-market funds climbed $4.92 billion in the latest week, posting a rare period of inflows, according to the Investment Company Institute.</br></br>For the week ended Wednesday, total fund assets increased to $2.849 trillion, according to ICI. Earlier this year, the total funds tracked by ICI fell below $3 trillion for the first time since October 2007.</br></br>ICI has reported outflows in all but three weeks this year, many of them steep. The fund group said outflows through April totaled $462.96 billion. Cash has been leaving money-market funds as investors seek higher returns, which drove a 17-week outflow streak that was broken this month as stock markets were rattled by the "flash crash" and European sovereign-debt issues.</br></br>Often, an investor's gut reaction to news that sends the market into a panic is to move stock investments into money-market funds.</br></br>Retail-class funds climbed $3.79 billion, to $996.04 billion. Taxable government funds rose $1.18 billion, to $173.96 billion, while taxable nongovernment funds had $3.43 billion of inflows, raising the level to $608.89 billion. Tax-exempt funds saw $820 million of outflows, putting the total at $213.19 billion.