Portfolio

The market continued to show its confidence in municipal bond mutual funds with strong inflows following a holiday week of relative inactivity.

As Congress and the White House head toward another battle over extending the Bush-era tax cuts, a trade association representing utility companies is warning that investors could be in for a major hit if the rates for qualified dividends revert to their pre-2003 levels, even if the only rates that move are those for the wealthiest Americans.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.26 points Thursday to close at 12,573.27 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended off 6.69 points and 21.79 points, respectively.

On July 12, 2012, DoubleLine Capital LP’s $28 billion Total Return Bond Fund has experienced the most inflows among U.S. mutual funds this year through June, Bloomberg reports, citing data from Morningstar.

The Board of Trustees of the Newgate Global Resources Fund has decided to liquidate the fund, effective as of July 31, according to a Securities and Exchange filing.

Ernst & Young LLP has appointed Julie Canty and Carlos A. Schmidt as partners in the firm’s Asset Management Tax practice.

JPMorgan, under Americas equity research head Noelle Grainger, scored the largest number of highly ranked analysts, making it the No. 1 firm in U.S. equities research. Bank of America was No. 2, followed by Morgan Stanley.

Fusion offers practice management and business consulting to independent financial advisors. NFP hopes the deal will increase its margins by next year.

Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc. has launched the Laudus Mondrian Global Fixed Income Fund (LMGDX) to bet on developed, U.S., and emerging market bond markets.

Domestic ETF assets totaled $1.16 trillion as of June 30 – up 11.3% year-to-date, according to State Street Global Advisors’ ETF Snapshot.