Apr 24, 2020 - Economy & Business

Professional investors keep loading up on cash

Dion Rabouin, author of Markets
Data: Investment Company Institute; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

Institutional investors revived their flight to safety last week, pushing inflows to money market funds to all-time-high levels, largely unaccompanied by retail investors.

What it means: Money market funds saw inflows of $108.70 billion for the week ending April 22, almost all of which came from professionals who added $108.26 billion.

  • For institutional investors, it was the fifth highest weekly total ever recorded.
  • Four of the five largest weekly inflows by institutional investors to money market funds have come since March 18, data from the Investment Company Institute show.
  • Retail investors have held firm, as not a single week in April has registered in the top 40 highest weekly inflows.

The big picture: A record $4.65 trillion is now held in money market funds. That's around $700 billion more than the peak level seen during the 2007–2009 global financial crisis.

  • Further, the share of that total held by professional money managers has increased to 67%.

Go deeper: Investment professionals are selling while mom and pop buy the coronavirus dip

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