Mutual Fund, ETF Fund Flows Rebound in October: Morningstar

News November 19, 2021 at 04:43 PM

Share & Print

Morningstar reported Thursday that $84 billion flowed into U.S. long-term mutual funds and ETFs in October, up from $53 billion in September, their lowest monthly intake of the year.

After hemorrhaging $7.5 billion in September, U.S. equity funds brought in $32 billion in October to lead all U.S. category groups. Passive large-blend funds powered the intake.

October flows into international equity funds amounted to approximately $15 billion, well behind their U.S. counterparts, which this category group has outpaced for much of 2021.

Sector-equity funds had inflows of some $6 billion in October, rebounding from a $700 million outflow in September. Morningstar noted that although investors favored technology and cyclically oriented sector funds earlier in the year, they have not consistently embraced either since June.

Taxable-bond funds experienced their lowest intake, $22 billion, since March 2020. Even so, their $486 billion of inflows so far in 2021 is the most of any category group.

Strong demand for environmental, social and governance-related funds carried over into October. Funds that have sustainability mandates incorporated into their prospectuses, as measured by Morningstar, had inflows of $4.9 billion, bringing their trailing 12-month intake to $75 billion — a 36.6% organic growth rate.

In October, $20.2 billion flowed into iShares, the most among all fund families. That sum narrowly exceeded the $19.7 billion that streamed into Vanguard, whose monthly flows had led all fund families for 10 consecutive months before October.

Image: Shutterstock