U.S. Money Market Fund Assets Plunged on Tax Payments

The U.S. money market fund assets plunged to the lowest figure over two years as companies arrange their federal taxes for quarterly basis and investors paid $66 billion in Treasury securities, based on the Money Fund Report on Wednesday.

Outflows amounting to  $65.25 billion left a balance of $2.762 trillion for the week on June 19, as published by iMoneyNet. Money funds as another option in settling cash by companies.

This has been the largest drop since the week of April 5 where outflows cost $62.52 billion, which is the fifth biggest decline on the analysis of iMoneyNet. The decline in money fund assets is largely influenced by two factors - tax receipts and investor payment on Treasury supply, according to analysts.

In the previous week, corporates give cash much earlier than the quarterly tax deadline. According to the Treasury, they received a $26.0 billion worth of corporate taxes on June 15 compared to the $42.2 billion last year.

Other than that, the Treasury gained $43 billion of new cash as investors sorting out their assets as they bought Treasury auctions including $68 billion worth of three-year, 10-year and 30-year debt last week.