Morningstar Reports U.S. Mutual Fund and Exchange-Traded Fund Flows for August 2020

News provided by

Sep 16, 2020, 07:00 ET

CHICAGO, Sept. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows for August 2020. Overall, long-term mutual funds and ETFs collected $41 billion in August, marking their fifth consecutive month of inflows. The deeper story is the continued split between U.S. equity and taxable-bond funds, as outflows from U.S. equity funds have accelerated during 2020 while taxable-bond funds continue to garner strong inflows.

Morningstar's report about U.S. fund flows for August 2020 is available here. Highlights from the report include:

As the S&P 500 reached highs last seen in February, U.S. equity funds saw a record $52 billion of outflows in August, surpassing the previous record of $45 billion set in July. Within U.S. equity funds, investors pulled a record $32 billion from large-blend funds. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, the largest fund in the U.S. by total assets, approached $1 trillion despite nearly $10 billion of outflows during the month.
Among U.S. equity funds, investors pulled $27 billion out of actively managed products and $25 billion out of passively managed products. The main distinction was between open-end funds and ETFs, as nearly $55 billion left open-end U.S. equity funds in August while ETFs collected $3 billion during the month.
Taxable-bond funds gathered $77 billion in August, pushing the category group's 2020 net inflows to $209 billion despite $240 billion of outflows in March. Short-term bond funds were a bright spot in the taxable-bond group. Their record inflows of $12 billion in August topped the previous record of $11 billion set in June.
Commodities funds continued to see strong inflows, collecting another $3 billion in August. This is the only category group to have positive flows every month in 2020. Gold funds continued to shine as some investors sought safe havens or hedges against inflation, with iShares Gold Trust taking in nearly $900 million in August.
Among fund families, Vanguard regained the top spot with more than $7 billion of inflows. The firm's ETFs raked in $13 billion, more than offsetting nearly $6 billion pulled from its open-end funds. For the year to date, Vanguard's ETF suite has gathered $113 billion while its open-end funds have shed $41 billion.

To view the complete report, please click here.

The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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 debt and 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, debt securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $205 billion in assets under advisement and management as of June 30, 2020. The Company has operations in 27 countries. For more information, visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on Twitter @MorningstarInc.

Morningstar's Manager Research Group consists of various wholly owned subsidiaries of Morningstar, Inc. including, but not limited to, Morningstar Research Services LLC. Analyst Ratings are subjective in nature and should not be used as the sole basis for investment decisions. Analyst Ratings are based on Morningstar's Manager Research Group's current expectations about future events and therefore involve unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause such expectations not to occur or to differ significantly from what was expected. Analyst Ratings are not guarantees nor should they be viewed as an assessment of a fund's or a fund's or separately managed account's underlying securities' creditworthiness. This press release is for informational purposes only; references to securities or a separately managed account investment strategy in this press release should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy or sell the securities or to invest in accordance with that strategy.

MORN-R

Media Contact:
Rebecca Rogalski, +1 312 244-7771 or [email protected]

SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.