Portfolio

Wall Street snapped out of its four-day funk Wednesday thanks in large part to some encouraging economic data from Europe and China. The Dow gained 83.55 points to end at 12,716.46.

For some stocks, the January Effect never took hold. Here's a look at the five Dow component stocks that lost the most ground in the first month of the year.

Investors displayed faith in all types of mutual funds for the week ended Wednesday, January 25, adding a total of $11.6 billion to equity, bond and hybrid funds, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Investment Company Institute.

Inflows increased 68%, from the $6.9 billion mutual funds posted the week before.

Franklin Resources a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments ended the year with total assets under management of $670.3 billion, up $10.4 billion or 2% during the quarter.

An investment research and consulting company said it is releasing a suite of software tools for analyzing mutual funds based on the “three-factor” model of University of Chicago finance professor Eugene Fama and Dartmouth College professor Kenneth French.

As part of the arrangement, Adams Hall will retain its name and gradually integrate its operations and systems into Mariner’s over time.

Antitrust regulators in Europe stopped the merger of Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext on Wednesday, saying the combined group would have a stranglehold on the listed European futures market and would thwart new entrants.

NYSE Euronext said it would focus on its “standalone strategy,’’ while Deutsche Boerse declared this a ‘black day’ after the European Commission prohibited the merger of the two exchange operators.

President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget will propose a 28% cap on the value of tax preferences, including tax-exempt interest for municipal bonds, according to knowledgeable sources.