Portfolio

Commodity and currency-based ETFs are gaining popularity as investors disappointed with poor returns on traditional investments like stocks and bonds look to diversify their holdings.

UBS zeroes in on five events that will happen in the upcoming year, five that may and five that won’t.

Investors went on a bit of a buying spree Friday after digesting the latest plan by euro zone leaders to shore up their debt issues and a somewhat encouraging consumer sentiment report.

Economic and sovereign risks are likely to dissipate in 2012, according to Barclays Capital’s quarterly research publication, the latest titled, “Global Outlook: A Cautious Step Forward.” As a result, an economic rebound could come as early as the spring.

An estimated $9.2 billion flowed out of long-term mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday, Nov. 30, according to the latest statistics by the Investment Company Institute, a trade association for U.S. investment companies.

The Hartford will hire up to 50 in its mutual fund sales distribution unit, in a push to beef up this division.

U.S. Bancorp has launched a new exchange-traded funds service, ETF-Fusion, which helps existing or start-up ETFs with product development, administration and trade support, proprietary technology and regulation and compliance.

Investors dumped shares in late trading Thursday on reports that German officials rejected some of the EU summit draft measures intended to help extricate some Eurozone nations from their daunting sovereign debt issues.

Markit, a specialist in valuations and post-trade processing for swaps and other non-exchange traded products, has launched a service to help US mutual funds and other institutional investors find a fair value for their bonds.

LPL Financial said it has added more than 500 net new advisors this year, bringing it close to 13,000. The additions came as the company prepared hikes in the fees it charges them.