Your money-market fund statement may show a balance with a few more digits.
When you next check your balance, you may see a lot more digits. Fidelity, Schwab, and other firms managing 40% of U.S. money fund assets said in January they would disclose the exact per-share value of their funds' holdings daily, in place of reports they've issued monthly since 2010.
Don't be confused: Shares you trade will still be priced at the standard net asset value (NAV) of $1 apiece.
So why the new detail?
The firms are responding to proposals aimed at protecting investors from a repeat of 2008, when one fund's NAV hit 97ยข.
One such idea (which stalled at the SEC last year) is to have funds trade at a floating NAV like other mutual funds.
Related: Money 70 - Best mutual funds and ETFs
Wall Street hopes the daily disclosure will reassure people that values stay very close to $1. As low as the funds' risk may be nowadays, though, it may not be offset by their reward: an average yield of just 0.05%.
Unless you need a brokerage sweep account, keep your cash in an FDIC-insured bank account.
| Fund | Net Asset Value (NAV) |
| Fidelity Government Money Market (SPAXX) | $1.0001 |
| Fidelity Tax-Free Money Market (FMOXX) | 1.0005 |
| Fidelity AMT Tax-Free Money (FIMXX) | 1.0016 |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 15,318.23 | 138.38 | 0.91% |
| Nasdaq | 3,482.18 | 30.05 | 0.87% |
| S&P 500 | 1,651.81 | 12.77 | 0.78% |
| Treasuries | 2.18 | 0.01 | 0.51% |
| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pfizer Inc | 29.40 | 0.24 | 0.82% |
| Sprint Nextel Corp | 7.32 | 0.10 | 1.39% |
| General Electric Co | 24.33 | 0.56 | 2.36% |
| Bank of America Corp... | 13.27 | 0.06 | 0.45% |
| News Corp | 31.56 | 0.28 | 0.90% |
| Overnight Avg Rate | Latest | Change | Last Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 yr fixed | 4.01% | 4.04% | |
| 15 yr fixed | 3.11% | 3.18% | |
| 5/1 ARM | 2.82% | 2.88% | |
| 30 yr refi | 4.00% | 4.03% | |
| 15 yr refi | 3.11% | 3.16% |
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