U.S. stock funds are beating the S&P 500

If averages are any guide, then there is good news for mutual fund investors because actively managed U.S. stock funds have outperformed the S&P 500 so far this year. The average year-to-date return for an actively managed domestic stock fund was 7.75% through June 15, compared to 3.58% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, according to Chicago-based Morningstar Inc. Some of the leading companies in the index had double-digit losses in the first quarter, said Russel Kinnel, director of mutual fund research at Morningstar. For instance, Pfizer Inc. of New York and Procter & Gamble Co. of Cincinnati are down for the year. “Many of the securities [active managers] held have snapped back faster than the broad-based index,” said Geoff Bobroff, an East Greenwich, R.I.-based mutual fund consultant. “It has become a market of stock selection rather than a jumble of the broad market.” Financial services and firms in the commodities sector rebounded sooner than the market, he said.