Investors are plowing cash back into mutual funds, with bond funds leading the way even as U.S. equity funds continue to see outflows.
According to funds data company Morningstar, total inflows into U.S. open-end mutual funds were $314 billion this year through October. That's a stark contrast from the $154 billion in outflows during the year-earlier period.
Much of that money is coming from money market funds, which have seen roughly $400 million in outflows in the nine months after they peaked at $3.6 billion in January.
Taxable bond funds saw the biggest inflows in October, at $35.6 billion, followed by municipal bond funds at $6.2 billion.
On the equity side, international stock funds raked in $5.1 billion during October, while U.S. equity funds experienced outflows of $8.1 billion. That's the second consecutive month of outflows for U.S. equities, leaving the category in the red so far in 2009.
Among fund families, Dimensional Fund Advisors has seen the largest inflows year-to-date as of October, at $5.8 billion. Three of the top ten largest fund families suffered outflows during this timeframe-American Funds, Oppenheimer Funds and Dodge & Cox.
In the exchange-traded funds universe, positive inflows in October strengthened a trend that has boosted overall year-to-date inflows to nearly $64 billion. Taxable bond funds have been the most popular category, with commodities and alternative funds neck-and-neck for second spot.
Among Morningstar's seven ETF categories, the only one with year-to-date outflows is U.S. stocks ($34.6 billion).