Portfolio

The sell-off in municipal bonds finally appeared to sap some retail demand for state and local government debt last week as muni mutual funds reported taking in the paltriest amount of new money in six weeks.

Lyxor Asset Management named Fabian Pavlowsky as head of quantitative strategies within the Societe Generale subsidiary’s Hedge Fund Research team based in New York.

Banks, losing fees elsewhere, are looking to investment services to make up the difference.

The high-yield market has been going great guns this year, but there’s a new caveat for those kicking the tires: a slower-than-expected recovery.

Fixed-income and commodity ETFs move up as equity prices slide.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus on Thursday proposed to extend the Build America Bonds program for only one year in legislation he unveiled that would extend several expiring or expired bond and tax provisions.

"Moving away form AAA ratings is sacrilege," protests Peter Crane of Crane Data.

Fearful of how a change in ratings will help them market their funds among investors, money fund managers are chafing at the idea of Moody’s’ proposed new ratings. Investors are used to looking for AAA-rated money market funds, and it will take some time for them to get to a scale ranging from MF1 to MF4, money managers tell The Wall Street Journal.

WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus on Thursday proposed to extend the Build America Bonds program for only one year in legislation he unveiled that would extend several expiring or expired bond and tax provisions.

Exchange-traded funds will continue on a strong, albeit somewhat scaled back, growth track, expanding assets by an average of 19% a year over the next five years through 2014, according to Financial Research Corp. Over the last five years, the annual growth rate has been 23%.