CHICAGO, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund asset flows year-to-date through November. Total inflows into U.S. mutual funds reached $350.4 billion, with $34.6 billion of these assets added in November. ETFs had $14.0 billion in inflows in November, marking the ninth consecutive month of net inflows for the industry, bringing the year-to-date total to $77.8 billion. Additional highlights from the report on mutual funds: -- Although bond funds still represent the majority of November's inflows, investors now appear to be easing up on the fixed-income peddle, as November taxable and municipal-bond inflows dropped to $33.5 billion. -- Among the equity funds, investors continued to favor foreign-equity funds over domestic-equity funds. Net flows were negative for domestic-stock funds, while foreign-equity funds received more than $5.4 billion in assets. -- For five months in a row and for the eighth time in 2009, Vanguard's combined open-end and ETF monthly flows exceeded $10 billion. Fidelity saw net outflows for the second month in a row. -- Of the $8.8 billion in inflows into TCW fixed-income funds this year, $8.4 billion (96% of fixed-income flows) went to the TCW Total Return Bond Fund, which was previously managed by the recently ousted Jeffrey Gundlach. Additional highlights from the report on ETFs: -- November marked the busiest month so far in 2009 for ETF providers in terms of new product launches with 24 new ETFs introduced to the market, bringing the year-to-date total to 116 new ETF launches. -- Following another strong month for emerging-markets ETFs, the international-equity category brought in $4.0 billion, the most among the broad asset classes. -- ETF investors made bullish bets on the dollar, funneling $1.1 billion into currency ETFs in November and $2.3 billion year to date. -- Investors were placing bearish bets last month, as evidenced by the $1.0 billion in net inflows for inverse ETFs for a year-to-date total of $19.9 billion. To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/novflows09. 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. ©2009 Morningstar Inc. All rights reserved. MORN-R Media Contact: Carling Spelhaug, 312-696-6150 or DATASOURCE: Morningstar, Inc. CONTACT: Carling Spelhaug of Morningstar, Inc., +1-312-696-6150, Web Site: http://www.morningstar.com/

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