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US Fund Flows: Investors pour $77 billion into funds in August, but not where you’d expect
Investors double down on bonds, pull back from growth equities, and eye gold as volatility looms.
Key Takeaways
Long-term US mutual funds and exchange-traded funds took in $77 billion in August 2025, the largest inflow since February 2025.
Taxable-bond funds’ momentum persisted, bringing in nearly $65 billion of new assets, their largest monthly inflow since 2021. Conservative categories like intermediate core bond and ultrashort bond continued to lead the pack.
Gold continued to glitter, with commodities-focused funds taking in roughly $6 billion, putting them on pace to top 2020’s record inflow of $44 billion.
US investors kept leaning away from risk in August 2025 as they put $77 billion to work in mainly fixed-income open-end funds and ETFs. Taxable-bond funds led, with their largest inflows since April 2021, concentrated in defensive areas. Investors also continued to move into cash. Meanwhile, equity investors bolted from growth funds and emerging-markets funds, despite continued rotation into international funds.
The charts below illustrate which direction the money is flowing for a variety of fund types. For a more complete analysis, download the full monthly report from Morningstar’s Adam Sabban and Ryan Jackson.
This data was sourced from Morningstar Direct. Not a user? Get a free trial of Direct.
Source: Morningstar Direct Asset Flows. Data as of Aug. 31, 2025.
Navigating Market Volatility Through Fund Flows Data
Taxable-Bond Funds Stay Hot
In August, taxable-bond funds experienced their largest monthly inflow since April 2021. Conservative categories like intermediate core bond and ultrashort bond led the way, each accruing over $10 billion in assets for the month. Corporate-bond funds experienced their largest monthly inflow since June 2020, with absolute yields remaining high. While 19 of the 23 fixed-income categories were in inflows, long-term bond funds shed assets for the sixth straight month, albeit to a smaller degree than months past, as investors remained wary of persistent inflation.
Source: Morningstar Direct Asset Flows. Data as of Aug. 31, 2025.
Investors Show No Signs of Shaking the Gold Bug
As gold prices soared to record heights, investors continued to crowd into commodities-focused funds in August. These funds, which invest mostly in precious metals, gathered more than $6 billion in the month, pushing 2025’s haul to $31 billion. That’s the second most in the past 15 years and, at this rate, it could overtake 2020’s $44 billion record by year-end. Investors similarly moved $1.3 billion in August into precious-metals equity funds, like VanEck Gold Miners ETF.
Source: Morningstar Direct Asset Flows. Data as of Aug. 31, 2025.
US Equity Outflows Persist in August, With Growth Funds Mostly to Blame
Investors have pulled nearly $87 billion out of US equity funds over the past four months as investors retreat from growth strategies, even as stock markets hit record highs. In August, 98% of the $11 billion in monthly net outflows came from growth funds, while in the past year, the retreat was even more pronounced. Investors yanked more than $100 billion from growth funds, about 3 times the outflows from value funds, and a stark contrast to the $217 billion of inflows into large-blend funds. Those funds are dominated by inflows into passive ETFs tracking the S&P 500.
Source: Morningstar Direct Asset Flows. Data as of Aug. 31, 2025.
More on Fund Flows from Morningstar
For more comprehensive analysis and commentary on US Fund Flows, download this month’s full report.
Additional topics include:
Active/passive flows by US category group
Flows for the largest fund families
Government bond fund and money market flows
Can’t get enough fund flows data? Check out Morningstar’s Ultimate Guide to Fund Flows.
Unsure about the future of active management? Check out this insightful article from a Morningstar analyst.
This article is adapted from the Morningstar US Fund Flows report for August 2025. Download the full report here.
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Note: The figures in this report were compiled on Feb. 28, 2025, and reflect only the funds that had reported net assets by that date. The figures in both the commentary and the extended tables are survivorship-bias-free. This report includes both mutual funds and exchange-traded funds but not funds of funds unless specifically stated. It does not include collective investment trusts or separate accounts. Important methodology note: Morningstar computes flows using the standard approach in the industry: Net flow is the estimated change in assets not explained by the performance of the fund. Our method assumes that flows occur uniformly over the course of the month. Adjustments for mergers are performed automatically. When liquidated funds are included, the fund's final assets are counted as outflows. Reinvested dividends are not counted as inflows. We use fund-level reinvestment rates to improve accuracy in this respect. We make ad hoc adjustments for unusual corporate actions such as reverse share splits, and we overwrite our estimates with actual flows if managers are willing to provide the data to us. When possible, Morningstar offsets outflows caused by transfers to other investment vehicles that share an identical mandate since they are not indicative of a change in investor interest.