Portfolio

FINRA fined Merrill $1.05 million and ordered the firm to pay more than $323,000 in restitution for over 12,000 trades executed on its ML BondMarket platform.

BlackRock's first-quarter earnings rose 10% as its exchange-traded equities funds drew client cash and assets increased.

New rules to reduce risk in money-market mutual funds will be proposed in the next two months by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which won’t be slowed by a leadership change, a commissioner said.

Vanguard reported that expense ratios have changed for three of its mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined a firm $37,500 for trade and books and records violations, and a broker $5,000, giving him a four-month suspension, for telling a customer he redeemed bonds rather than sold them without the customer's permission.

Broadridge today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has greenlighted 16 original patent claims as well as five new claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,122,635 (‘635 Patent’).

Vanguard last week reported that expense ratios have changed for three of its mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.

Guinness Atkinson Asset Management last week disclosed in a regulatory filing its first proposed exchange-traded fund: a dividend offering.

Since peaking at $1,900 per ounce in September 2011, the price of gold has dropped nearly 22%, to last Friday’s close. Labeling himself an “inveterate contrarian,” John Stoltzfus, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer, suggests that a near-term bounce might be in order.

North Peak Asset Management has added a new fund to its family. The Duxbury, MA shop launched the Inflation Hedges Strategy fund (INHIX, INHRX) which will invest in asset classes that are sensitive to increases in inflation.