CHICAGO, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported U.S. mutual fund and ETF asset flows year-to-date through October. Total inflows into U.S. mutual funds reached $314.1 billion, far surpassing the $154.2 billion that investors pulled out of the market in 2008, with $40.3 million in inflows occurring during October. ETFs continued to attract assets in October. Overall, ETFs saw slightly more than $8.0 billion in net inflows for the month, bringing the year-to-date total net inflows to $63.9 billion. Industry-wide, assets under management as of Oct. 31, 2009 fell to $699.2 billion, down slightly from the previous month because of market performance. Additional highlights from the report on mutual funds: -- Dimensional Fund Advisors topped the list of firms with the greatest inflows, while American Funds remains the only firm among the largest five fund families to have outflows year to date. -- U.S. equity funds saw outflows of $8.1 billion in October, marking the second straight month that U.S. stock funds lost assets while bond funds gained assets. Large-growth and large-value funds experienced the largest declines. -- International equities have stopped bleeding and are now in positive territory. The group, bolstered by flows into world-allocation and diversified emerging markets, gathered $5.1 billion in assets in October. Additional highlights from the report on ETFs: -- Taxable-bond ETFs had roughly $2.7 billion in net inflows for the month, led by Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) as a hedge against inflation. iShares Barclays TIPS Bond TIP took in $667.7 million in new net assets in October and $7.2 billion year to date. -- For the second consecutive month, U.S. stock ETFs were the only category to see net redemptions, with approximately $3.8 billion in net outflows. The S&P 500-tracking SPDRs SPY, which had $2.1 billion in net outflows in October and has shed $33.0 billion in assets year to date, topped the list. -- ETFs offering exposure to commodities or commodity-based strategies saw net inflows of $567.0 million in October after attracting more than $1.4 billion in September. In October, the bulk of the inflows, $551.9 million, went to gold bullion ETFs. -- Amid the daily headlines touting the weakness of the U.S. dollar, investors poured $548.4 billion into currency ETFs, or nearly 50% of the category's $1.2 billion in total year-to-date inflows. To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/octflows09. 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. Media Contact: Carling Spelhaug, 312-696-6150 or ©2009 Morningstar Inc. All rights reserved. MORN-R DATASOURCE: Morningstar, Inc. CONTACT: Carling Spelhaug of Morningstar, Inc., +1-312-696-6150, Web Site: http://www.morningstar.com/

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