Portfolio

Bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co. is preparing to launch its first exchange-traded fund, according to government filings.

Money market mutual funds regained $15.45 billion in assets as institutional investors continued to seek safety in these products. Total money fund assets were at $3.789 trillion for the week ending May 27, according to the Investment Company Institute.

The U.S. economy will begin to recover by the end of the year but unemployment is another matter, fund managers speaking at the Morningstar conference said.

With investment banking earnings set to improve this year, many executives will, despite government intervention, get bigger bonuses this year, according to compensation consultant Johnson Associates.

Persistent withdrawals brought Man Group’s revenues for fiscal year ended March 31 down by 22.8% to $2.49 billion and net profits down 85% to $503 million from $3.47 billion a year earlier.

Citing the vast disparity in the performance of target-date funds, Morningstar by year-end will begin rating and researching target-date funds to make them more transparent and more easily comparable, for professional and retail investors alike, the research firm announced Thursday.

In November, analyst consensus was that the S&P 500 would decline 17% for 2008 but rebound by 30% this year, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Hedge funds with $100 million or less in assets underperformed hedge fund giants for the first time since 1996, PerTrac Financial Solutions found.

For the 10th straight week in a row, mutual funds took in inflows, the Investment Company Institute revealed. However, the flows tapered off to $9.69 billion for the week ended May 20.

European Union Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is expected to propose uniform new rules regarding depositories for undertakings in collective investments in transferable securities (UCITs), the European Commission’s version of mutual funds.