Portfolio

BlackRock said net income reached $657 million in its fourth quarter, up $401 million or 157% from a year earlier. Net income for all of 2010 more than doubled, to $2.1 billion, on revenue of $8.6 billion.

Global X has already contracted to develop new ETFs based on the indexes.

“The outlook for investors in 2011 is as positive as we have seen in years,” says Joseph R. Dancy, Adjunct Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University and manager of the LSGI Venture Fund L.P.

In 2008, when the global credit crisis exploded, the SEC conducted 772 examinations of the operations of brokers and dealers of financial instruments in the United States. In 2010, that number fell to 490 examinations. The cause? The increasing complexity of the exams that take place. Here are the numbers that result, when the SEC takes on brokers.

The hiring outlook for the next six months looks good, according to the most recent survey from the National Association for Business Economics.

Russell Investments has launched two new mega-cap emerging markets indexes, the Russell Emerging Markets Mega Cap Growth Index and the Russell Emerging Markets Mega Cap Value Index. Global X Funds has already contracted to launch two exchange-traded funds based on the indexes.

Global equities are benefiting from an increasingly positive outlook by investors, according to the latest BoA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers.

U.S. banks have finally started extending loans to consumers for the first time since the credit crisis began in 2008.

Fewer wealthy Americans are using mutual funds, and among those investors who continue to use these investment products, allocations are down significantly.

The fund combines hedge and private equity approaches.