Morningstar Reports U.S. Mutual Fund and ETF Asset Flows Through March 2010

CHICAGO, April 15 /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 March 2010. Open-end mutual funds saw inflows of $47.5 billion in March, bringing total inflows for the first quarter to $125.2 billion. Investors pulled $148.2 billion out of money market funds in March. In the first quarter alone, $324.4 billion exited money markets, the largest quarterly outflow Morningstar has tracked. Inflows for ETFs hit $19.7 billion in March, bringing total net inflows for the industry to $7.7 billion for the first quarter. A total of 18 new ETFs launched during the month, and J.P. Morgan Chase and Eaton Vance took preliminary steps to begin offering actively managed ETFs.

Additional highlights from the report on mutual funds:

• International-stock funds collected $19.7 billion for the quarter, the asset class's strongest quarterly inflow since the fourth quarter of 2007.
• Investors continued to favor bond funds over stock funds, a trend that has now endured for 27 straight months, adding $35.6 billion to the asset class in March.
• Despite investors' tendency to chase performance, they have ignored some hot market segments. Latin America stock funds gained 116% over the past 12 months, yet they gathered assets of just $780 million. Domestic real estate and global real estate funds soared 105% and 73%, respectively, over the past year, yet they saw inflows of only $787 million and $679 million, respectively.
• Five of the 10 funds with the greatest inflows for the quarter were Vanguard funds. Harbor Funds had strong inflows in March, while Loomis Sayles experienced its worst quarter since the fourth quarter of 2008.

Additional highlights from the report on ETFs:

• After 30 consecutive months of net inflows, iShares Barclays TIPS Bond experienced $74 million in net outflows. Instead, investors expressed preference for short-duration and "junk" bonds in March.
• Vanguard Emerging Markets VWO amassed another $784 million last month, bringing its quarterly inflow to $2.8 billion, while iShares MSCI Emerging Markets EEM shed another $719 million in the month and $4.2 billion for the quarter.
• After outflows of $902 million in January and February, SPDR Gold Trust reversed course and gathered assets of $827 million in March. United States Oil led outflows for the commodity asset class with $187 million.
• Leveraged ETFs with bullish exposure experienced outflows of roughly $1.8 billion, while those offering bearish exposure pulled in $1.4 billion in new assets in March.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/marchflows10.

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 approximately 350,000 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.