Portfolio

Coming off a rough week in the stock market, industry economists look at the status of the global recovery—and the risks and opportunities that lie ahead…commentary from T. Rowe Price, Standard and Poor’s and GE Asset Management, plus this week’s report and corporate earnings calendar.

Affiliated Managers Group Inc. [AMG] announced Monday it bought a stake in a London fund manager as the Boston company continues to look to expand internationally.

The Rydex SGI AdvisorBenchmarking rose 3% to 109.68 from a month earlier. This is a 27% improvement from where the index stood a year ago.

Despite the trend over the past three years at many large money managers to divest and focus on core businesses, Invesco Ltd. retained its trust unit, Atlantic Trust. And the decision continues to pay handsome dividends.

To help the middle-class save for retirement, President Obama may have also given a boost to the annuities sector.

Bank of America's Merrill Lynch Wealth Management has launched a new U.S. marketing campaign, "help2retire___," to illustrate individuals' evolving retirement priorities and personal aspirations. Budgeted at $20 million, it launched last Monday and is scheduled to run through the end of April on broadcast network and national cable TV, as well as print and online consumer and trade magazines, including sister publication Financial Planning.

NEW YORK -- Online retirement calculators are usually so confusing or overwhelming that the average plan participant logs in, checks their account balance and then logs off without making any changes. Putnam Investments has developed a new retirement income twist it hopes will resonate with investors, plan sponsors and financial advisers.

After the recent massive meltdown, it's no surprise that 81% of registered investment advisory firms and 79% of brokers and advisers now believe that traditional asset allocation relying on stocks, bonds and cash provides insufficient portfolio diversification.

Bill Would Require Funds to Reveal Proxies

Long-term mutual funds ended the week of Jan. 20 with net inflows of $13.18 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute. This brings the sales streak to 45 straight weeks totaling $454 billion.