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WASHINGTON — Market participants hailed yesterday’s long-awaited but widely expected Supreme Court decision that upheld 42 states’ preferential tax treatment of their bonds as a “resounding victory” for the municipal securities market.

The nearly $80 billion that was pulled from money market funds in April was the highest monthly total in 16 years.

The 2008 Mutual Fund Service Guide contains the following errors: Under Boston Financial Data Services on page 44, the number of shareholder accounts added/lost in 2007 should read 1,700,000 added, not 1,700. Under DST Systems on page 46, the number of closed-end U.S. mutual fund shareholder accounts is 27, not 26,655. Money Management Executive regrets any problems this might have caused.

Direxion Funds of New York and Boston hopes to break new ground for itself as well as the leveraged ETF marketplace.

AXA Names Pietrini-Smith As Chief Operating Officer

The CGM Mutual Fund may be nearly 80 years old, but it's acting like a fund half its age, writes The Motley Fool.

National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company, has launched a multimedia portal that gives broker/dealers and advisers who use its Streetscape workstation exclusive access to business-building and training resources. The National Financial Broker & Advisor Center is the latest addition to the Streetscape workstation and National Financial Broker and Advisor Development Program.

WASHINGTON - The credit crisis is 75% to 85% unwound in terms of the financial markets, but the economy may still be on shaky ground, saidJamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, to the 1,500 delegates assembled here for the Investment Company Institute's 50th annual general membership meeting. "I would say this thing has largely already worked its way through. It probably won't get worse at this point. Increased capital requirements will take about six months longer" to bring markets and counter-party risk tolerance back to normalcy, Dimon said.

A Pennsylvania court handed has sentenced Thomas J. Gerbasio, a broker with a division of hedge fund Beacon Rock Capital of Portland, Ore., to serve one year and a day in jail.

WASHINGTON-Regulators, employers and the financial services industry must work together to expand the use of 401(k) plans and increase worker participation, the Investment Company Institute's President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens told attendees at the ICI's 50th Annual General Membership Meeting on May 7.