Morningstar has added 10 new categories for its mutual fund classification system, six of them for commodities and four for sectors.

The new commodity categories are: agriculture, broad basket, energy, industrial materials, precious metals and miscellaneous. The new sector categories are: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, equity energy and industrials.

In addition, Morningstar has added commodities as a broad asset subclass to its six asset classes: U.S. stock, international stock, taxable bond, municipal bond, balanced and alternatives. Funds that correspond to this subclass will be benchmarked against the Morningstar Long-Only Commodity Index.

The growing number of commodity funds and their increased usage prompted us to add these new categories and the broad asset class, so investors can more properly evaluate and compare funds that invest in commodities, said John Rekenthaler, vice president of research at Morningstar.

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Morningstar Introduces 10 Additional Fund Categories

Morningstar has added 10 new categories for its mutual fund classification system, six of them for commodities and four for sectors.

The new commodity categories are: agriculture, broad basket, energy, industrial materials, precious metals and miscellaneous. The new sector categories are: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, equity energy and industrials.

In addition, Morningstar has added commodities as a broad asset subclass to its six asset classes: U.S. stock, international stock, taxable bond, municipal bond, balanced and alternatives. Funds that correspond to this subclass will be benchmarked against the Morningstar Long-Only Commodity Index.

The growing number of commodity funds and their increased usage prompted us to add these new categories and the broad asset class, so investors can more properly evaluate and compare funds that invest in commodities, said John Rekenthaler, vice president of research at Morningstar.

The growing number of commodity funds and their increased usage prompted us to add these new categories and the broad asset class, so investors can more properly evaluate and compare funds that invest in commodities, said John Rekenthaler, vice president of research at Morningstar.