Investors look to funds focused on Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities to cushion portfolios against inflation. However, TIPS fund investors have learned the hard way over the last two years that rising interest rates can offset their benefits.With bond yields resuming their push higher this year, TIPS funds that tend to hold more short-term bonds (less sensitive…

Indexes have changed a lot over the past century. What was once state-of-the-art is now antiquated. The first indexes used information that was available, not what was best for building a portfolio. Modern-day indexes have evolved over time to keep costs down and provide a better investment experience.A Brief History of IndexesThe first indexes were…

The US bond market is having a good year: The Morningstar US Core Bond Index was up nearly 5% during the first quarter of 2025. “Unsettled by the DeepSeek AI disruption, major policy uncertainty around tariffs, and fears of ‘stagflation,’ investors took a risk-off approach to the markets during the quarter,” explains Morningstar Indexes strategist…

It’s easy to become a hyperfocused investor. With so much investment information available, you can spend all your time chasing advisor suggestions, scrolling through financial articles, and screening mountains of performance data to find the most perfect investments.Not everyone can, or wants to, invest like that. For investors who desire a more hands-off option that…

Large-cap stocks have dominated in recent years, leaving the average mid-cap blend fund trailing the broader market. However, a few mid-cap blend funds have kept up, including the Vanguard US Momentum Factor ETF VFMO.To screen for the top-performing funds in this category, we looked for those with the best returns over the last one-, three-,…

Large-blend funds offer investors broad exposure to the stock market, combining the largest growth, blend, and value companies. To screen for the top-performing funds in this category, we looked for Morningstar Medalist funds with the best returns over the last one-, three-, and five-year periods. Eight large-blend funds made it through the screen. Notably, in…

You could lose money by investing in a money market fund. An investment in a money market fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Before investing, always read a money market fund’s prospectus for policies specific to that fund. Past performance is no guarantee of…

Dividend stocks are popular investments: Many investors rely on the regular dividend payments these stocks offer as sources of passive income. Of course, investors can pursue a total return approach to generating income to meet their spending needs, too. Or they can combine the two income strategies.Exchange-traded funds that invest in dividend-paying stocks can be…

These days, investors may well find that their list of worries is long and growing: Slow global growth, a slumping stock market, meager bond yields, and eventual interest-rate hikes all loom large.But there’s another risk that investors should have on their radars: the risk of a big taxable distribution from one of their mutual funds.…

Running a mutual fund, like running any business, has certain costs associated with it, and every party that performs a function along the line needs to get paid somehow. But as Morningstar’s John Rekenthaler and Paul Ellenbogen recently pointed out, fund prospectuses often paint those expenses in very broad strokes, and reporting methods vary; for…

It’s back! After a five-year hiatus, Morningstar’s Fund Family 150 Digest is back to help investors evaluate the largest fund families in the US. The 2024 edition illustrates the ways the asset-management industry is evolving through topics like exchange-traded fund exposure, alternative fund offerings, and women portfolio managers. It also features classic due diligence considerations…

Over the past 12 months, the Morningstar US Growth Index boasted a return of 21.49% versus 14.56% for the Morningstar US Value Index. Given the sizable performance gap between the two styles, many (including Morningstar’s chief US market strategist David Sekera) argue that value stocks currently look like a better opportunity than growth stocks.“Investor enthusiasm…