Portfolio

Almost six in 10 millionaires believe they have an obligation to give back to their communities, unchanged from 2008, when the U.S. economy went into a tailspin, according to a PNC Wealth Management survey.

After a gloomy 2011, this year the outlook for regional banks seems better, according to S&P Capital IQ.

When broker-dealers give money to California school bond campaigns, it appears to be money well spent. A review of campaign finance records found a nearly perfect correlation between broker-dealer contributions to California school bond efforts in 2010 and their underwriting subsequent bond sales.

In recent years, the federal government has created an AMT “patch” to help exempt millions of Americans from getting caught. But planners should note that lawmakers haven’t moved to create a patch for 2012.

Retail investors in municipal bonds got whipsawed in 2011.

The number of listed exchange-traded funds grew 20.6% in 2011 and the number of listed exchange-traded notes grew 53.8%, according to U.S. figures developed by the Exchange-Traded Fund Association.

The world's largest asset management firm will be the first to list securities on a BATS Global Markets electronic venue that now competes for listings on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market. BlackRock will list eight single-country ETFs with BATS. Based on MSCI Indexes, the ETFs will cover: Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, India, Norway and the U.K. The Norway fund will start trading Jan. 24 and the other funds soon after.

With yield and risk investors' two biggest concerns today, Nuveen Investments has launched a microsite focusing exclusively on income (http://www.nuveen.com/income/default.aspx).

Drum roll, please.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 49 points to close at 12,422.06 Friday as investors reacted to news that S&P will downgrade both France and Austria’s credit rating and is mulling the same for other eurozone countries.