Portfolio

MFS Investment Management has named Robert Manning, its current CEO and CIO, to succeed Robert Pozen as chairman of the company. Pozen is set to retire at the end of the year, an announcement said today.

As sentiment among wealth managers shifts, more capital has become available and companies right-size, banks, trust companies, wealth managers, and bank brokerages that are in a strong position to expand into a new market and acquire new units, will do so. But it is also the moment when companies without the capital—and stability—will get left behind.

Boosted by its investment banking and wealth management units, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported stronger than expected first-quarter results. The New York-based company posted first-quarter earnings today of $3.33 billion, or 74 cents a share, a 55% increase from the year-ago period. JPMorgan Chase’s overall revenue rose 5% to $28.17 billion.

Citi Alternative Investment LLC has sold three hedge fund business units—a fund-of-hedge funds, hedge fund seeding and hedge fund advisory businesses with a collective $4.2 billion of assets under management—to Skybridge Capital, a New York-based hedge fund incubator. The price of the deal was not disclosed.

Fidelity persists on path to nabbing more 401(k) assets, this time offering RIAs an all-in-one package to sell to their business clients.

The three business units — a fund of hedge funds, hedge fund seeding and hedge fund advisory businesses — are from Citi Alternative Investment LLC and collectively have $4.2 billion of assets under management.

But drop in sales charges offsets rise in expenses in 2009, the ICI said.

Build America Bond transaction participants are debating whether they need to do more to track BAB prices to avoid running afoul of statutory premium restrictions and jeopardizing the issuer’s subsidy payments or to respond to an Internal Revenue Service compliance check.

Despite a turnaround in the stock market and signs of recovery, a new survey by Citigroup revealed that American consumers still feel pessimistic about the economy, both nationally and locally.

Amid concerns over inflation and growing investors appetite for non-correlated asset classes, American Century has introduced the Strategic Inflation Opportunities Fund. Using fixed income and quantitative equity strategies, the fund invests in U.S. inflation-indexed securities, commodity-related investments and non-U.S. dollar investments.