Morningstar Reports U.S. Mutual Fund and ETF Asset Flows for October 2018

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Nov 20, 2018, 16:37 ET

CHICAGO, Nov. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) asset flows for October 2018. In October, investors placed $20.4 billion into passive U.S. equity funds, compared with inflows of $19.4 billion in the previous month. On the active front, investors pulled $16.8 billion, compared with $8.8 billion of outflows as reported last month. Morningstar estimates net flow for mutual funds by computing the change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund and net flow for ETFs by computing the change in shares outstanding.

Morningstar's report about U.S. asset flows for October 2018 is available here. Highlights from the report include:

October's $29.1 billion in long-term outflows were the greatest since August 2015, which saw $30.3 billion of outflows. These outflows represented 0.15 percent and 0.22 percent of long-term assets, respectively.
While core strategies fared best, like U.S. equity, specialty or niche equity strategies fared poorly. Investors pulled $12.6 billion from sector equity funds in October, representing 1.4 percent of overall assets. Real estate funds and technology funds were hit hardest, with $3.5 billion and $3.4 billion in outflows, respectively.
Among Morningstar category groups, notable trends include the $14.2 billion of outflows for taxable-bond funds—their worst month since December 2015. On the flip side, ultrashort-bond funds likely benefited from September's Federal interest rate hike, with a record $11.3 billion in inflows.
Large-blend led all Morningstar categories, with $14.5 billion of inflows. Allocation—30 percent to 50 percent Equity remained the least popular category, with outflows of $17.5 billion in October.
Among top U.S. fund families, Vanguard continues to see the highest monthly firm inflows of $9.0 billion, while Fidelity followed with $6.9 billion in inflows. Fund families that saw the greatest outflows include State Street Global Advisors and Invesco, which had approximately $7.4 billion and $4.3 billion of outflows, respectively.
Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, which boasts a Morningstar Analyst Rating™ of Gold, and Vanguard Total International Stock Index led all U.S. funds in October with $7.6 billion and $6.7 billion in inflows, respectively. However, another Vanguard fund, Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index, had the highest outflows with $5.1 billion exiting the fund.

To view the complete report, please click here.

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About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, retirement plan providers and sponsors, and institutional investors in the private capital markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide range of investment offerings, including managed investment products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with more than $207 billion in assets under advisement and management as of Sept. 30, 2018. The company has operations in 27 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc.

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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.