The Wall Street Journal-20080131-Investors Add --36-57-9 Billion to Money Funds

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Investors Add $57.9 Billion to Money Funds

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Investors in money-market funds added $57.9 billion in the week ended Tuesday, bringing total net assets to $3.266 trillion, according to the Money Fund Report, published by iMoneyNet Inc.

Institutional investors contributed $36.01 billion, while individual, or "retail," investors added $21.89 billion.

Assets in taxable money funds rose by $56.96 billion to $2.783 trillion. The average seven-day simple yield for taxable funds fell to 3.40% from 3.78%. The average seven-day compound yield, which assumes reinvestment of dividends, declined to 3.46% from 3.86%. Thirty-day simple yields slipped to 3.78% from 3.93%, while 30-day compound yields fell to 3.86% from 4.01%.

Highest seven-day compound yield among retail taxable general- purpose money funds was Vanguard Prime MMF/Investor at 4.45%, followed by Fidelity Cash Reserves at 4.40%, and Jenndry/MoneyMart Assets (classes B and C) and Thrivent MMF/Class A, each 4.38%.

About $939.5 million was contributed to tax-free funds, putting total tax-free assets at $483.25 billion.

Average seven-day simple yield for nontaxable funds fell to 2.45% from 2.53%. The average seven-day compound yield, which assumes reinvestment of dividends, fell to 2.48% from 2.56%. Average 30-day simple yield fell to 2.58% from 2.68%, and 30-day compound yield fell to 2.61% from 2.71%.

The fund with the highest seven-day compound yield among retail tax- free money-market funds was Alpine Municipal MMF/Investor at 3.10%, followed by Vanguard Tax-Exempt MMF at 3.02%, and Dreyfus Municipal Reserves/Basic, Vanguard NJ Tax-Exempt MMF and Vanguard PA Tax-Exempt MMF, each at 2.97%.