U.S. Mutual Fund and Exchange-Traded Fund Flows for April 2021

Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today reported estimated U.S. mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows for April 2021. For the month, long-term mutual funds and exchange-traded funds collected $124 billion in April, down from a record $156 billion in March. Investors continued to favor passively managed strategies, pouring in $94 billion; approximately $30 billion went to actively managed funds.

Morningstar's report about U.S. fund flows for April 2021 is available here. Additional highlights from the report include:

• Taxable bond funds took in $65 billion, the most of any category group. Bank-loan and inflation-protected bond funds added $5.8 billion and $5.5 billion in April, respectively.

• U.S. equity funds shed just over $500 million as investors paused after putting in a record $54 billion in March. The market's pivot to value-oriented niche categories continued in April. Equity categories such as financials, natural resources, real estate, and energy collected some of the highest totals within the sector-equity category group, which brought in $10.6 billion during the month.

• International-equity funds brought in $31 billion for the second month in a row. They have experienced inflows for six consecutive months following a spate of outflows beginning in March 2020.

• Allocation funds took in nearly $4 billion, representing the second month in a row of inflows after 69 consecutive months—nearly six years—of outflows. Target-date and model-portfolio rebalancing largely accounted for the month's inflows.

• Passive funds giant Vanguard took in the most assets among fund families, though primarily active shops such as American Funds and J.P. Morgan also enjoyed inflows.

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