Morningstar Reports U.S. Mutual Fund and ETF Asset Flows Through December 2009

CHICAGO, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund asset flows through December 2009. Net inflows for mutual funds amounted to $377.4 billion in 2009, with $356.6 billion of that total going to bond funds. The U.S. ETF industry closed out 2009 with $784.9 billion in assets under management, up from $744.7 billion at the end of November, and $533.4 billion at the end of 2008.

Additional highlights from the report on mutual funds:

• As bond funds raked in the cash, U.S. stock funds bled assets in 2009. They saw an additional $8.1 billion in outflows in December, taking the full-year total outflow to $25.7 billion.
• Although international-stock funds fared better than domestic-stock funds in 2009, taking in $25.5 billion in flows, they have not come close to making up for the $70.4 billion in outflows they experienced in 2008.
• In spite of the broad trend toward inflows, a handful of fund families didn't join the party. American Funds, Legg Mason/Western Asset, Putnam, Oppenheimer, Van Kampen, and Morgan Stanley were among the fund families that experienced net outflows in 2009.
• Investors largely preferred active strategies in 2009. Active funds gathered $304.2 billion in assets for the year, while passive long-term funds took in $69.7 billion. However, investors pulled $52.9 billion out of active U.S. stock funds, while passive domestic-equity funds saw inflows of $26.2 billion.

Additional highlights from the report on ETFs:

• Despite being the only broad asset class to show net outflows in 2009, U.S. stock ETFs closed out the year with $19.6 billion in net inflows in December.
• Taxable-bond ETFs were the most popular asset class of 2009, bolstered by continued interest in Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities and short-duration ETFs, which were once again the category's top asset gatherers in December.
• Following their explosive performance over the past year, investors continued to pile into emerging markets in December.
• SPDR Gold Shares, which saw $11.2 billion in total net inflows in 2009 and currently has more than $40.2 billion in assets under management, was easily the most popular ETF in 2009 in terms of total asset flows.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/decflows09.

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 Internet, software, and print-based products and services for individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar provides data on more than 325,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 4 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. The company has operations in 20 countries and minority ownership positions in companies based in two other countries.

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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.