Morningstar Reports U.S. Mutual Fund Asset Flows for July 2013

Morningstar recently reported estimated U.S. mutual fund asset flows for July 2013. Investors added $15.9 billion to long-term mutual funds in July, driven by inflows of $7.9 billion into international-equity funds. Outflows from taxable-bond funds ebbed to $1.3 billion after record outflows of $43.7 billion in June, with investors continuing to favor bank-loan and nontraditional bond funds at the expense of more traditional intermediate-term bond categories.

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

• Detroit's bankruptcy filing kept municipal-bond funds in heavy redemptions; the category group lost $10.3 billion in July to mark the fifth straight month of outflows.
• Value offerings led the way among equity funds, which was likely a result of yield-starved fixed-income investors seeking dividend income. Large-value funds collected $3.3 billion, the category's strongest inflow since February 2007.
• JPMorgan led all providers with inflows of $3.4 billion. Dimensional Fund Advisors, Oakmark, Principal Funds, and MFS have also gained market share over the last year.
• Investors pulled $7.5 billion from PIMCO Total Return in July, its third month of outflows. The fund has seen outflows of $18.4 billion over the previous three months compared with inflows of $21.5 billion over the 16-month period from January 2012 through April 2013.

To view the complete report, click here.