Portfolio

Advisors consider sector allocations to overweight favorites and underweight overvalued ones.

A failure by politicians in Washington to reach a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling in the next few days -- particularly if Standard & Poor's makes good on its threat to lower the country's AAA sovereign debt rating -- could have “deep and wide reverberations” in credit and equities markets, according to Todd Rosenbluth, an analyst at S&P Equity Research. But bond funds might be unscathed.

Unit investment trusts have their pros and cons but lately investors have been seeing a decided upside in a dividend strategy portfolio.

An overnight poll of 1,000 affluent Americans conducted Thursday evening by UBS Wealth Management Americas found that 40% are waiting out a resolution on the debt ceiling before putting any more money in the markets.

Commenting on Friday’s news from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis that the economy grew an anemic 1.3% in the second quarter, The Conference Board said that from a business cycle perspective, there still aren’t signs that the economy has re-entered a recession. However, the business research organization does not expect GDP to grow more than 2% in the remaining half of the year.

As the nation reaches the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, Fidelity Investments is telling investors not to panic-sell out of stock and bond funds, and to have confidence in money market funds, which have been safeguarded and have complied with stricter holding rules for the past year.

A majority, 63%, of middle-class Americans thinks that the U.S. is in a double-dip recession, the First Command Financial Behaviors Index shows. Fifty-percent thought the U.S. had reverted back into recession last summer.

MassMutual has made a number of enhancements to its RetireSMART target-date and lifecycle funds, most notably adding mutual fund options to its target-date series. Previously, only separately managed accounts through a group annuity contract were offered as target-date funds.

U.S. ETFs are on a roll so far in 2011, according to State Street Global Advisors, which released its 2011 mid-year ETF outlook report on Thursday.

MassMutual has made a number of enhancements to its RetireSMART target-date and lifecycle funds, most notably adding mutual fund options to its target-date series. Previously, only separately managed accounts through a group annuity contract were offered as target-date funds.