Portfolio

Continued contributions to 401(k)s and a 34% rally in the S&P 500 in the second and third quarters have propped up average balances quite strongly, Fidelity found in an analysis of the 11 million individual 401(k) accounts it serves.

The Department of Defense is now making Morningstar investment research available to all 6.5 million military personnel and their families. Previously, only members of the U.S. Navy had this access, beginning in 2002.

Seventy-five percent of fund managers do not expect the Federal Reserve to increase the Fed funds rate until the second half of 2010 or later, according to the November BoA Merrill Lynch survey of 218 fund managers with $534 billion in assets under management. Twenty percent think this might not happen until 2011.

Robert Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, has won a U.S. patent for his fundamental indexing methodology, based on the size of a company rather than its market capitalization.

Only 6% of wealthy investors with $500,000 or more in investable assets characterize themselves as enthusiastic about investing, while a full 49% are either reluctant or tentative about returning to the market, PNC Wealth Management found in its sixth annual Wealth and Values Investors’ Outlook survey of 1,046 investors.

Although investors have continued to overwhelmingly favor bond funds over equity funds—taxable bond funds have netted $200 billion in inflows so far this year compared with a scant $4.3 billion to equity funds—their risk tolerance has remarkably changed.

Asset managers evidently are optimistic about renewed growth in assets under management, with 47% saying they plan to expand their full-time product management staff over the next 12 months, FUSE Research Network found in surveys conducted over the past two months. However, since 80% said they laid off staff over the past year, employment levels are not likely to return to pre-crisis levels anytime soon.

ING Investment Management executives are more optimistic about the prospects of the U.S. economy and equities than many other financial forecasters.

Phoenix has introduced two fixed annuities, the Phoenix Index Select and Phoenix Index Select Bonus annuities. Both are single-premium annuities designed to be simpler than other products on the market, carrying a 10-year surrender charge, guaranteed principal protection and three optional guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit riders investors can use to meet their individual income requirements. The bonus annuity offers an upfront 5% premium.

IndexIQ has introduced the first merger arbitrage exchange-traded fund, the IQ ARB Merger Arbitrage ETF. The fund will invest in global companies that an acquirer has announced it will acquire through a “merger arbitrage.” Thus, the fund will try to take advantage of any price differentials between the current price of a stock and the expected value when the deal is completed.