Mutual Funds See Strong Flows in February

This builds on inflows of $87.2 billion in January, according to Morningstar’s report on mutual fund flows. With inflows of $18.6 billion, taxable-bond funds topped all asset classes for the month, but international-stock funds, which took in $16.5 billion, were not far behind.  

Diversified emerging-markets funds saw the strongest inflows among Morningstar categories in February, collecting $6.2 billion.   

Even though it may not be a clear sign of a rotation out of bonds and into stocks, investors are taking on more risk. Precious metals, money market, and most government bond funds saw outflows, while bank loan and emerging-markets bond offerings captured new assets. Even less-diversified offerings like sector funds also saw strong inflows.   

Bronze-rated PIMCO Unconstrained Bond led all active funds with inflows of $2.2 billion in February, and Gold-rated Eaton Vance Floating Rate, with new assets of $1.1 billion, led the recently popular bank-loan category.