Portfolio

Based on the strong performance Putnam Investments’ funds delivered across a wide variety of asset types in 2008, the annual Lipper/Barron’s Fund Families Survey has selected Putnam as the No. 1 mutual fund family of 61 offerings.

Advisor confidence in the economy and the stock market rose in January, according to Rydex SGI AdvisorBenchmarking.

Macquarie Group has launched the Macquarie Mexican Infrastructure Fund, with approximately $5.2 billion in initial commitments from Mexican pension funds, Macquarie and Mexico’s National Infrastructure Fund, the latter of which, as a cornerstone investor in the fund, has made an initial commitment of $1.04 billion to $3 billion.

Waddell & Reed earned $33.3 million, or 39 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, an impressive turnaround from the $730,000, or 1 cent a share, it lost in the last quarter of 2008.

After plummeting 46.63% in 2008, real estate mutual funds outpaced the S&P 500 by seven percentage points in 2009, delivering an average of 30.34%. This year, however, managers of these funds expect only modest, single-digit gains.

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.