Morningstar says flows into international and emerging markets continue through May 2013

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, reported estimated U.S. mutual fund asset flows through May 2013. Investors added another $38.6 billion to long-term mutual funds in May, led by taxable-bond funds with inflows of $21.1 billion.

U.S. equity funds saw outflows of $659 million in May, driven by redemptions of $1.9 billion from large-growth funds. However, with inflows of $8.5 billion, international-equity funds remained in favor, led by diversified emerging-markets funds.

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

• Despite investors' continued preference for fixed income, the composition of inflows to the asset class has shifted. Weak flows into intermediate-term bond funds mark a clear shift in investor behavior from 2012, when the category dominated inflows. Investors have sought out less interest rate-sensitive bond sectors recently, like nontraditional bond and bank-loan funds. 
• Municipal-bond funds saw net redemptions for the third consecutive month while money market funds collected new assets of $27.2 billion, their first monthly inflow of 2013.
• Vanguard led all providers in May. Franklin Templeton also had a strong month, driven by inflows into Templeton Global Bond. While PIMCO remained in second place in terms of fund family flows, its $2.5 billion intake in May was its weakest showing for the year to date.

To view the complete report, please visit http://www.global.morningstar.com/mayflows13. To view a video recapping March's U.S. asset flow trends, please visit http://bit.ly/may2013flows.