Stacks of US currency in ascending graph pattern

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Americans have been hoarding cash — even before the latest market turmoil

Assets in money market funds have been surging since 2022, hitting a record high last week.

4/7/25 10:27AM

Last week’s reciprocal tariff announcement has investors more jittery than at any point this year. Economists are raising the odds of a global recession, US and global stock indexes are tumbling, and oil prices have tanked. Instead of buying the dip, though, some investors and corporations are doing the opposite: hoarding cash.

According to The Wall Street Journal, assets in money market funds (MMFs) — near-cash assets that invest in short-term debt, offering a secure, modest yield — hit a record $7.4 trillion, per Crane data. Over $60 billion flowed in during just the first few days of April, as some investors sought safer ground.

However, the MMF asset boom started long before tariffs made headlines.

According to a different data set from ICI, money market fund assets have grown as much as 60% in the past five years, from $4.4 trillion to just over $7 trillion, as of April 2. Part of this surge comes down (of course) to safety, with MMF assets having spiked during the 2008 financial crisis, the early days of Covid, and after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in early 2023.

But much of it is also about yield: since the Fed started hiking rates in 2022, MMFs have offered increasingly attractive returns, now averaging 4.2%, up from near-zero just a few years ago. Even with the Fed’s pivot, investors haven’t pulled out, with MMFs becoming more of a long-term allocation rather than “dry powder” sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the storm to pass.

Tom Jones40m

Texas Instruments slumps on disappointing Q4 revenue and profit outlook

Texas Instruments is down a little over 8% in premarket trading, as investors react to the weaker-than-expected fourth quarter guidance the company gave in its Q3 earnings yesterday.

The world’s biggest analog chipmaker said that Q4 revenue would come in between $4.22 billion and $4.58 billion, where analysts had expected $4.5 billion on average, per Bloomberg. TI’s profit forecast for the period also disappointed, after the company said that earnings would be in the region of $1.13 to $1.39 per share, compared to reported Wall Street estimates of $1.41.

While its actual third quarter numbers were broadly solid all told, with adjusted EPS at $1.59 meeting expectations, the Q4 outlook is a clear signal to some that recovery will likely be a little more sluggish than they expected. As the company’s CEO, Haviv Ilan, put it on an analyst call:

The overall semiconductor market recovery is continuing, though at a slower pace than prior upturns, likely related to the broader macroeconomic dynamics and overall uncertainty.

Texas Instruments counts more customers than anyone else in the semiconductor business and has a broader range of products, too, making it something of a bellwether for the industry more broadly, with its softer outlook weighing modestly on stocks such as Analog Devices, AMD, and Intel.

Matt Phillips13h

DraftKings moves to counter prediction market threat

DraftKings is holding onto its gains from after the bell yesterday, trading 6% higher in the pre-market, following news that it is buying Railbird in an effort to address the competitive threat from prediction markets that has weighed on its share price — and that of FanDuel parent Flutter Entertainment — for weeks.

The deal is then latest example of the increasing linkages and overlap between worlds of financial markets, gambling, and prediction markets.

Earlier this month, ICE — the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange and the ICE futures markets, among others — announced it would invest up to $2 billion in prediction markets company Polymarket.

And Robinhood shares have recently gotten a lift from its ongoing partnership with prediction market platform Kalshi, which has seen growing uptake of its events contracts that allow buyers to take positions on football games.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

By and large investor excitement over prediction markets — which has picked up since the start of football season — has seemed to come at the expense of Flutter and DraftKings, the two companies that dominate US sports betting.

Over the last three months through the end of regular trading on Wednesday, DraftKings and Flutter were down 23% and 18%, respectively, while the S&P 500 is up about 7%.

DraftKings acquires predictions platform Railbird

The deal is then latest example of the increasing linkages and overlap between worlds of financial markets, gambling, and prediction markets.

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

Over the last three months through the end of regular trading on Wednesday, DraftKings and Flutter were down 23% and 18%, respectively, while the S&P 500 is up about 7%.

Max Knoblauch

14h

As Netflix drops on earnings miss, it’s investing just $0.40 into content for every $1 of revenue

Netflix shares fell in after-hours trading on Tuesday, following the release of the streamer’s third-quarter earnings report.