Portfolio

Improved capital and stock prices are proving that more than small “green shoots” are nudging the economy back to a recovery and setting the stage for IPOs, LBOs and M&As, Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman said Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Institutional investors are increasingly optimistic about the markets and the economy, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch found in its October survey of fund managers. In fact, their risk appetite is at the highest point in three years.

Stunned by losses in the financial crisis, Americans will be investing significantly less in the future, according to a new survey by consulting firm AlixPartners.

Vanguard is temporarily closing its top-performing Vanguard Capital Value Fund, a $742 million fund that rose 68.5% year-to-date through the end of September. In that period of time, assets in the fund have more than tripled.

While it’s good news for investors that a majority of mutual fund boards have adopted the best practices advocated by the Investment Company Institute and the Independent Directors Council, some critics believe those suggested practices should be mandatory.

Flows into equity funds have remained flat ever since the market bottomed out on March 9, an indication that investors remain spooked by the market’s sharp decline last year—despite the S&P 500’s year-to-date 59% gain.

Eighty-three percent of the 60 institutional managers that Northern Trust surveyed expect corporate earnings to increase in the third quarter, and 84% expect the world economy to improve.

The pace at which the Internet continues to affect communications is nothing short of dramatic. Nearly every type of information is now instantaneously accessible, downloadable and hyperlinked. As we adapt to absorbing ever greater volumes of information, and to the rapid rate at which it comes at us, our preferences as consumers of information are changing.

Edward Bernard to Chair ICI's Board of Governors

Workers who had already been investing in their 401(k) for at least five years through 2008 saw their balances drop an average of 24% last year, compared with the S&P 500's sharp 37% decline, the Investment Company Institute and the Employee Benefit Research Institute said.