Portfolio

Long-term equity and bond funds took in $7.25 billion in the week ended Sept. 9, marking the 26th straight week of inflows, now totaling $266 billion, the Investment Company Institute said.

Institutional investors remain optimistic about the global economic outlook, but they don’t expect growth to match historical averages, Merrill Lynch found in a survey of 423 fund managers overseeing a total of more than $1 trillion in assets.

Investors pulled $2.1 billion out of leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds, the second month they have redeemed money from the controversial funds.

A groom who works in the financial services industry has launched a wedding registry website, weddingfutures.com, where couples can sign up to receive gifts of mutual funds and stocks through their bank or brokerage firm. The website charges 5% for every purchase.

Putnam Investments has launched a suite of nine international sector funds that will invest in stocks in the MSCI World Index. The nine funds are: the Putnam Global Consumer Fund, Putnam Global Natural Resources Fund, Putnam Global Energy Fund, Putnam Global Technology Fund, Putnam Global Financials Fund, Putnam Global Utilities Fund, Putnam Global Health Care Fund, Putnam Global Telecommunications Fund and Putnam Global Industrials Fund.

Open-end mutual funds have pulled in more than $226 billion through August, bringing them close to making up for ground lost in the second half of 2008, Morningstar said in a report.

The Department of Labor is dropping a rule proposed during the final days of the Bush administration that would have allowed 401(k) providers to offer advice to investors even if it involved a plan in which its own funds were sold.

Fifty-one percent of younger adults are thinking more seriously about retirement planning after watching the recession’s impact on their parents, Country Financial found in a survey. Evidently, these investors believe it is critical to stay on top of their finances and retirement savings, since 71% said they expect to experience a second similar recession by the time they reach their parents’ age, and 60% believe their financial situation will be the same or worse in retirement as their parents.

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services has formed a distribution partnership with Edward Jones that makes Hancock’s 401(k) platform, complete with the Guaranteed Income For Life feature, available to the brokerage’s 12,000 financial advisers.

More than 100 investors with money trapped in the Reserve Yield Plus Fund have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to reserve the permission it gave to Reserve Funds to delay redemption requests in order to liquidate holdings in an orderly market, The Wall Street Journal reports. The investors have been waiting for their remaining $175 million for the past year. The fund once held $1.2 billion.