Portfolio

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index fell to -49.4 in the week ended May 15, a nine-month low reflecting a pessimistic outlook among consumers as the cost of fuel and groceries continues to increase.

Russell Investments and Axioma have launched a series of long-only large- and small-cap factor indexes designed to help investors better manage their portfolio’s exposure to five risk factors.

They don't have the big-chip cache of the large-cap funds or the diamond-in-the-rough promise of the small caps, but mid-cap mutual funds have consistently outperformed both of those asset classes over the past decade and there's no reason to think that trend will end anytime soon.

Continuing a comeback after a difficult 2010, annuity sales through banks topped $4 billion in March to reach their highest level since exactly two years earlier, according to research firm Kehrer-LIMRA.

Exchange traded funds continue to gain in popularity with both retail and institutional investors but actively managed ETFs represent only a tiny fraction of the more than $1.1 trillion in assets trading in U.S. ETFs.

They plan to boost their staff by 30% over the next 12 months, Fidelity finds.

The schizophrenic behavior of the U.S. economy in the past six months has forced large consumer products firms to look outside their own empires for new revenue sources. Fortunately, most of them have plenty of cash to spend.

College graduates who applied sound planning with following their passions had a much more satisfying college experience—and less debt—than those who did not, according to a study from Fidelity Investments.