July brought relief after stock and bond markets endured a difficult first half of the year. The Morningstar Global Markets Index, a broad benchmark of global equities, advanced 7.03%, its best month since November 2020. While the same economic factors that wreaked havoc in the first half of the year continued to cast uncertainty on the future, better-than-expected corporate earnings drove most stocks ahead. Bonds also rallied. The Morningstar U.S. Core Bond Index climbed 2.41% in its best month since August 2019.The turnaround in performance did not spark enormous flows. Investors plowed $41.8 billion into U.S. exchange-traded funds in July, a smaller amount than the $48.7 billion average over the first six months of the year. Fixed-income funds’ $27.7 billion inflow led the way in July, while stock ETFs hauled in a modest $1… Full Story

After their first month of outflows since 2018 in April, U.S. exchange-traded funds rebounded with $66.6 billion of inflows in May. Stock ETFs course-corrected, adding $32.6 billion of new money. But it was fixed-income funds that led the way. The $33.4 billion they collected last month exceeded their haul over the previous four months combined. The Morningstar Global Markets Index, a broad gauge of global equities, scratched out a 0.03% gain across a turbulent May. The benchmark slid 4.62% over the first three weeks of the month before rallying just above zero to close out the month. It was a smoother run for the Morningstar U.S. Core Bond Index, a portfolio of U.S. government bonds and investment-grade corporate debt, whose 0.53% return snapped a streak of five consecutive months of losses. The index is still down 8.97% for th… Full Story