Portfolio

Ameriprise Financial finalized a $440 million deal to purchase J&W Seligman in the fourth quarter. The addition of Seligman will provide Ameriprise with addition outlets to sell its mutual funds and further improve its hedge fund business.

Earlier this week, John Templeton sadly passed away at the age of 95. Templeton created the Templeton Growth Fund back in 1954, but many articles about his passing avoided this subject when they summarized his life.

With the beginning of a new fiscal quarter this month, many hoped for an end to the credit crisis that has plagued the market thus far this year. Yet these hopes have been disbanded as threats of further losses throughout financial institutions, concerns of inflation, and record high oil prices continue to persist.

According to data firm Hedge Fund Research, the $2 trillion hedge fund industry has been hit hard by the credit crisis.More funds have left the industry, and fewer have entered, over the past six months than collectively last year.

A source for the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) recently stated that the CSRC only suggested that senior mutual fund officials remain in China until the Olympics in early August to keep a stable market, they are in no which way barring them from leaving the country.

Vanguard has transferred 34 of its 38 exchange-traded funds to the NYSE Arca from the American Stock Exchange. This is a result of the merger between Amex and NYSE EuroNet, the holding company for NYSE Arca. The other four ETFs, Vanguard® Mega Cap 300 ETF, Vanguard Mega Cap 300 Growth ETF, Vanguard Mega Cap 300 Value ETF and Vanguard Total World Stock ETF, are already traded on the NYSE Arca.

In a report released yesterday on what went wrong at the ratings agencies responsible for grading instruments tied to subprime debt, the Securities and Exchange Commission found a breakdown in communications.

Most individuals are not saving enough for retirement because they are not compensating for rising medical costs, lengthening life spans, and the declining availability of pension and retiree medical benefits, according to a study by Hewitt Associates.

Sir John Templeton, founder of the Templeton Funds and who first came to Wall Street in 1937, passed away yesterday at the age of 95 from pneumonia in Nassau, Bahamas.

Absolute Return magazine reports that only 35 new hedge funds have been launched in the first half of this year, down markedly from 72 funds in the first half of 2007. But this year, those new funds have raised $19.5 billion, up 39% in total assets under management at the outset from the $14 billion the new funds raised last year.