Portfolio

International investment managers from across the spectrum have cast a dark shadow on the prospective effects for inflation and commercial real estate, but they are optimistic toward gains in currency and the U.S. and Asian equity markets, however.

Twelve percent more fund managers surveyed this month by Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecast that the global economy will deteriorate in the next 12 months, than said the economy would grow. Last month, the net result of the survey was that, on balance, 24% more fund managers predicted the global economy would pick up steam, than lose it.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they are more concerned about their finances today than they were at the beginning of the financial crisis.

An age-old standard, gold, was one of the most touted alternative investments at the Morningstar 2010 Investment Conference in Chicago last month.

The sovereign debt crisis coupled with persistently high unemployment rates in the United States and continued fears over the 2008 financial meltdown has rocked investor confidence, so much so that investor mood has completely turned around in the past month.

The Morningstar 2010 Investment Conference in Chicago was chock-full of sessions on international investing, and the hallways were abuzz with talk of emerging markets. Yet some fund managers damped the excitement, saying that although emerging markets are hot, these investments will not be able to live up to expectations.

The hot topic in the media right now is actively managed exchange-traded funds. But given how relatively small the actively-managed ETF universe is compared to the overall ETF universe, this product has received an outsized amount of attention.

Demand for health savings accounts seems to be reviving after a long period of inertia that preceded the passage of health care reform.

The good news for investors is that actively-managed ETFs are likely to grow further and are showing some momentum.

Municipal bond mutual funds last week rebounded from a brief spell of cash leakage with the biggest influx of new money in four months.