Portfolio

Institutional investors' optimism about the global economy has soared to its highest level in nearly six years, and portfolio managers are putting spare cash back into the stock market, according to the Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey.

While mutual fund executives and analysts warned earlier this year that some of the holdings of stable-value funds were questionable and that they were in danger of breaking the buck, that no longer appears to be true, The Wall Street Journal reports.

High-yield bond funds have returned an outstanding 33% year-to-date and attracted $14.6 billion in assets, TheStreet.com reports. And for the 10 years through the end of July, high-yield bonds gained 2.9% annually, compared with the 2.2% loss in the S&P 500 Index.

It is remarkable that the federal appeals court judge who dissented on the Jones v. Harris Associates case made a point of saying that executive compensation needs to be reined in, The New York Times reports.

A full 70% of Americans aren’t sure how they’ll be able to save enough for retirement, Bankrate.com found in a recent survey. Another 50% worry about being able to send a child through college.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued a joint investor alert today warning investors about the risks associated with leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds.

Mutual funds that focus on a select sector or small number of stocks are outperforming more broadly based portfolios, The Wall Street Journal reports. These funds rely on in-depth research to invest in only a couple dozen of stocks, rather than the average 172. Thus, they are riskier—but have the potential for outsized returns.

After almost a year in federal receivership, in which chunks of the giant corporation have been sold off, American International Group (AIG) has ended negotiations to sell its Advisor Group of independent broker/dealers. The group had been on the market for roughly 10 months.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Monday filed fraud charges against Charles Schwab & Co., alleging it misled investors about the risks of auction-rate securities.

Affiliated Computer Services has joined the growing list of service providers offering 401(k) analytic tools for plan sponsors.