CHICAGO, Feb. 12 /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 January 2010. Mutual funds saw inflows of $44.5 billion in January. Domestic-stock funds gathered $2.7 billion in assets, reversing four consecutive months of outflows, while international-equity funds took in more than $8.1 billion--the biggest monthly inflow for the asset class since December 2007. Meanwhile, bond funds continued to dominate all other asset classes, with investors adding $28.0 billion to fixed-income funds during the month. Following strong inflows in 2009, U.S. ETF flows dipped into the red to kick off 2010, with $16.7 billion in net outflows in January. Although industry assets fell to $746.9 billion, a 4.8% decline from December, total net assets for ETFs grew 49.2% on a year-over-year basis. Additional highlights from the report on mutual funds: -- Based on total net assets, fixed-income funds now represent approximately 30% of the mutual fund market, up from 19% at the end of 2007. -- Despite significant outflows from several Fidelity large-cap funds in January, the firm registered net inflows of nearly $1.6 billion. On the heels of a positive January and coming off inflows of nearly $16.2 billion in 2009, Fidelity has not come close to making up 2008's outflow of $37.3 billion. -- Although active funds still dominate the mutual fund market, passive strategies have increased their market share to 20%, up from 11% at the beginning of 2000. -- American Funds experienced outflows for the seventh straight month, but the pace of the firm's outflows has slowed. -- Davis Funds and Selected Funds, both run by Davis Advisors, saw outflows again last month, a trend the firm has experienced since late 2008. Ivy Funds had a strong month, paced by $709.2 million in inflows to Ivy Asset Strategy. Additional highlights from the report on ETFs: -- SPDRs SPY, whose massive size and heavy trading activity tends to skew ETF flow data, had more than $15.1 billion in outflows in January. -- International-stock ETFs took in $888.2 million in net assets in January, led by Vanguard Emerging Markets VWO, which saw $894.0 million in net inflows. -- iShares Barclays TIPS Bond TIP had inflows of $674.1 million in January, as investors poured more than $1.9 billion into taxable-bond ETFs. -- Over the past year, Vanguard's ETF assets have more than doubled, and the firm's ETF market share has grown to about 12.4% from 8.5% a year ago. To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/janflows10. 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. ©2010 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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