Money Funds Hemorrhage Record $324.4B in 1Q10

Investors pulled $324.4 billion from money market mutual funds in the first quarter, the largest quarterly outflow ever tracked by Morningstar. Approximately $148.2 billion left the funds in March, Morningstar said.

Open-ended mutual funds had inflows of $47.5 billion in March, for a total of $125.2 billion for the quarter. Inflows to exchange-traded funds soared by $19.7 billion in March, for a quarterly net of $7.7 billion. There were 18 new ETFs launched in March.

International stock funds pulled in $19.7 billion for the quarter, the strongest quarterly inflow since the fourth quarter of 2007, Morningstar said. However, bond mutual funds continued to lead stock funds with $35.6 billion in inflows in March.