Portfolio

MFS Investment Management has historically been best known for its bond funds—but it’s the firm’s Municipal High-Income Fund (MMHYX) that stands out as a gem of consistency.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index, which gauges the confidence of institutional investors as measured by their exposure to equities, rose eight points to 104.4 in December, up from 96.4 in November. A reading of 100 is neutral.

In December, adviser confidence in the U.S. economy and stock market reached its highest mark since February 2007, according to the Adviser Confidence Index, a benchmark that gauges adviser views.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index decreased slightly in December to 52.5, down from 54.3 in November.

MFS Investment Management has historically been best known for its equity funds — but it’s the firm’s Municipal High-Income Fund (MMHYX) that stands out as a gem of consistency.

Clearly Loomis Sayles is not going to pay heed to the weekly ups and downs of bond market activity with this fund.

Q&A with BNY Mellon Managing Director, Global Financial Institutions Joseph Keenan

Faced with the loss of stimulus aid, state and local governments are hoping the economy will rebound in time to support their budgets and defuse market concerns over credit downgrades and possible bond defaults, market participants said in their outlooks for 2011.

Record municipal bond mutual fund redemptions have emerged as a threat to the rally most market participants expected to kick off early next year, as the anticipated slowdown in the supply of new bonds is met with a wave of selling by mutual funds.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,573.49 on the last trading day before Christmas. That's up 10.6 percent from a year ago. And 37.5% from two years ago.