Portfolio

Valentine's Day may be the holiday of passions, but investors seemed mostly unstirred in a week of steady, but unremarkable mutual fund flows.

For the week ended Feb. 13, investors steered a meager $509 million into U.S. stock funds, 37% less than a week earlier.

The Thompson Investment Management family last week lost one of their own in the form of Donald Nichols, who passed away on February 15. Nichols had been a director at the firm since the firm’s founding in 1987.

Fidelity Investments has made its first big step in becoming a provider of actively managed ETFs.

Guggenheim Investments is liquidating nine exchange traded funds to make room for other “products that have demonstrated the most marketplace demand.”

One month into their new relationship, Legg Mason Capital Management and ClearBridge Investments are merging two of its funds into one.

Rye Brook, NY-based IndexIQ is currently prepping a pair of index funds to add to its growing list of index exchange-traded funds.

According to The Global Survey of Investment and Economic Expectations, fund managers are "more optimistic" about the prospect for equity returns. However, they continue to view world growth and medium-term government bonds with hesitation, as they still expect a sovereign debt default in the Eurozone and fear weak fiscal situations in the U.S., U.K. and Japan.

Last week was a busy one for both active and passive exchange-traded fund providers with five fund launches and one updated filing of an actively managed fund from a mutual fund stalwart.

Yes, mutual funds have been outshining exchange-traded funds, so far this year.