Morningstar says, investors focus on yield and bonds; equities see momentum

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund asset flows through March 2013. Investors accelerated their hunt for yield in the first quarter, adding $184.3 billion to long-term open-end mutual funds while redeeming $92.8 billion from money market funds. For the 19th consecutive month, taxable-bond funds topped all asset classes with inflows of $19.3 billion in March, bringing their inflows for the quarter to $69.1 billion. Morningstar estimates net flow by computing the change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund. Click here for a full explanation of Morningstar's methodology.

Additional highlights from Morningstar's report on mutual fund flows:

• Although it is too soon to declare a secular shift to equities, U.S.-stock funds gathered inflows of $21.5 billion in the first three months of the year, marking the first positive quarter for the asset class since the beginning of 2011 and the best quarter since 2004.
• Investors continue to embrace international-stock funds, which took in $12.1 billion in March and $47.0 billion for the quarter.
• Relative to total assets, alternative and commodities funds had strong March inflows, collecting $2.0 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively. For the quarter, alternatives saw inflows of $9.2 billion, the best three months on record for the asset class.
• Vanguard and PIMCO continue to capture the vast majority of industry inflows, while American Funds experienced redemptions in March after inflows in January and February.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/marchflows13.