Portfolio

Investment consultants and plan sponsors continued to express the strongest interest in the geographies of ACWI ex-U.S., global and emerging markets in September, according to a prominent institutional investment database.

The Conference Board Employment Treads Index fell 0.45 percentage points to 100.95 in September, pointing to continued slow job growth for the rest of the year. However, the figure is up 4.4 percentage points from September 2010.

Man Investments has launched the Man Long Short Fund, a ’40 Act equity hedge fund-of-fund that will invest in up to 30 portfolios and offer monthly liquidity. With a minimum investment of $50,000, the fund will only be available to high-net-worth clients of top-tier broker-dealers.

Five of the world’s largest emerging markets -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- forged an alliance to cross-list their respective equity-based products.

The SEC, the Federal Reserve and other regulators are not likely to adopt an emergency liquidity facility funded by fund sponsors to backstop money market funds, according to Gregory Johnson, CEO of Franklin Resources.

Long-term mutual funds had total outflows of $10.95 billion in the week ended Oct. 5, the Investment Company Institute said. This was up substantially from the $5.68 billion of outflows in the previous week ended Sept. 28.

Despite concerns over the debt crisis in Europe and the growing debate over a second global recession, recent news on the domestic economic front has been “relatively decent,” according to Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

Investors withdrew $5 billion from U.S. stock and bond long-term funds in September, Strategic Insight reports.

Gemini Fund Services is expanding its portfolio, building out its Northern Lights Fund Trust I shared mutual fund trust with the addition of three new funds from Ascendant Advisors.

Hedge funds took in $6.1 billion in net new flows in August, marking the seventh month of inflows since January, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research. For the first eight months of the year, hedge funds have seen $51 billion in inflows.