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

CHICAGO, Aug. 17, 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 July 2020. Overall, long-term mutual funds and ETFs collected $43 billion in July, marking their fourth consecutive month of inflows. Total inflows from April through July were $164 billion, slightly more than half of the $327 billion of outflows that affected those funds in March.

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

• Taxable-bond funds continue to see strong inflows, gathering $86 billion in July. This is the group's second-highest monthly tally behind June's $92 billion record. In contrast, U.S. equity funds had record outflows of nearly $46 billion in July, and their $147 billion of outflows for the year to date puts the group on track for its worst annual outflows ever, surpassing 2015's record outflows of $63 billion.
• Sector-equity funds continue to attract investors and collected $3 billion of inflows in July. Investors have targeted sectors such as technology and health that could benefit from social distancing policies, work-from-home arrangements, e-commerce, and the search for a coronavirus vaccine. However, investors dropped out of sectors hit hard by government-imposed lockdowns or weak demand, including real estate and natural resources.
• Commodities funds posted another strong month in July, drawing in $8 billion and bringing year-to-date total inflows to nearly $39 billion. Investors continued to seek protection in precious-metals funds, pouring $4.0 billion into SPDR Gold Shares and a total of $3.5 billion into iShares Gold Trust and iShares Silver Trust.
• Morningstar debuted two environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related data points to our fund flows analysis in July: the Morningstar® Sustainability Rating™ and Morningstar® Low Carbon Designation™. U.S. equity funds with 4- or 5-globe ratings and a Low Carbon Designation have had net inflows thus far year-to-date 2020, while most other combinations saw net outflows for the same period.
• Among fund families, iShares topped the list with $19 billion of inflows in July. Much of that went into taxable-bond funds, including investment-grade and high-yield corporate-bond ETFs. The Federal Reserve continues to be active in those segments, but its purchases do not account for the majority of iShares' flows. Meanwhile, many active managers saw outflows, including Dimensional Fund Advisors, American Funds, Oakmark, and Primecap.

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 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.

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Media Contact:
Rebecca Rogalski, +1 312 244-7771 or rebecca.rogalski@morningstar.com

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