CHICAGO, July 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced it has added six new commodity categories, four new sector categories, and one broad commodity asset class to its proprietary classification system for mutual fund portfolios domiciled in the United States. These new categories and the asset class are available today. The new commodity categories are: -- Agriculture: These funds invest in grain and feed products, oilseeds, cotton, dairy, livestock, poultry, and/or horticultural products. Investment can be made directly in physical assets or commodity-linked derivative instruments. -- Broad Basket: These funds invest in a diversified basket of commodity goods including but not limited to grains, minerals, metals, livestock, cotton, oils, sugar, coffee, and cocoa. Investment can be made directly in physical assets or commodity-linked derivative instruments, such as commodity swap agreements. -- Energy: These funds invest in oil (crude, heating and gas), natural gas, coal, kerosene, diesel fuel, and propane. Investment can be made directly in physical assets or commodity-linked derivative instruments. -- Industrial Metals: These funds invest in such industrial metals as aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc. Investment can be made directly in physical assets or commodity- linked derivative instruments. -- Miscellaneous: These funds invest in a specific commodity that does not fit into any of Morningstar's existing commodity categories and for which not enough funds exist to merit the creation of a separate category. -- Precious Metals: These funds invest in such precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Investment can be made directly in physical assets or commodity-linked derivative instruments. The new sector categories are: -- Consumer Discretionary: These funds seek capital appreciation by investing in equity securities of U.S. or non-U.S. companies that are engaged in the manufacturing, sales, or distribution of consumer goods that are non-necessities. -- Consumer Staples: These funds seek capital appreciation by investing in equity securities of U.S. or non-U.S. companies that are engaged in the manufacturing, sales, or distribution of consumer staples. -- Equity Energy: These funds invest primarily in equity securities of U.S. or non-U.S. companies that conduct business primarily in energy-related industries. This includes and is not limited to companies in alternative energy, coal, exploration, oil and gas services, pipelines, natural gas services, and refineries. -- Industrials: These funds seek capital appreciation by investing in equity securities of U.S. or non-U.S. companies that are engaged in services related to cyclical industries. This includes, but is not limited to, companies in aerospace and defense, automotive, chemicals, construction, environmental services, machinery, paper, and transportation. Morningstar also added a new broad asset class called "Commodities" to its current set of six broad asset classes: U.S. Stock, International Stock, Taxable Bond, Municipal Bond, Balanced, and Alternatives. All of the new commodities categories are assigned to this broad asset class. Morningstar has selected the Morningstar Long-Only Commodity Index as the benchmark for this new broad asset class. This index has a transparent, rules-based construction with broad diversification and history back to 1980. "The growing number of commodity funds and their increased usage prompted us to add these new categories and the broad asset class so investors can more properly evaluate and compare funds that invest in commodities," said John Rekenthaler, vice president of research for Morningstar. Rekenthaler added, "Our 2008 acquisition Hemscott Data provided Morningstar with more than 20 years of comprehensive fundamental data on virtually all publically listed companies in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland as well as a well-established equity sector structure. In order to provide one comprehensive global sector classification system, we evaluated both methodologies and combined the best features of each, resulting in the addition of the new sector categories." As a result of the new categories, the Morningstar(TM) Rating for funds that are assigned to a different category may change because they will now be rated against a new peer group. The new category assignments will be available in Morningstar's Web-based products today, and will be rolled out in all Morningstar products by the end of July. The Morningstar Category(TM) Classifications methodology is available at http://corporate.morningstar.com/CategoryClassifications. The Morningstar Category classifications were introduced in 1996 to classify funds based on how they actually invest. Rather than assign a category to a fund based on the objective stated in its prospectus, Morningstar analyzes the fund's underlying holdings. Funds are placed in a given category based on their average portfolio statistics during the past three years. 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 300,000 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 19 countries and minority ownership positions in companies based in three other countries. (C)2009 Morningstar Inc. All rights reserved. Media Contact: Alexa Auerbach 312-696-6481, DATASOURCE: Morningstar, Inc. CONTACT: Alexa Auerbach, +1-312-696-6481, Web Site: http://www.morningstar.com/

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