Money Management Executive Latest News

The lengthy surge in small-cap stock performance has delighted investors during an otherwise bleak market environment, but some Wall Street experts now say the rally is nearly exhausted, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

A new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers identifies oversight of third-party service providers as the latest challenge for mutual fund company boards.

Morningstar Analyst Curt Morrison, in a recent column, called the Standard & Poor’s 500 index a poor investment loaded with overpriced stocks largely poised for modest growth.

The SEC has reached a settlement agreement with Harold J. Baxter and Gary L. Pilgrim for fraud charges surrounding undisclosed market timing. Each has been ordered to pay $60 in disgorgement and $20 million in civil penalties. This, combined with the $90 million that Pilgrim, Baxter & Associates was ordered to pay in July 2003, will eventually go to injured investors.

The SEC’s recent mutual fund governance rule could run up against a challenge after the spending bill gets passed, Dow Jones Newswires reports. The $388 billion bill includes a measure requiring the SEC to report to Congress on the performance and fees of mutual funds with independent chairmen.

The NASD Mutual Fund Task Force made its recommendations on soft dollars and disclosing portfolio transaction costs to the SEC Wednesday.

Parents faced with the daunting task of paying for their children’s college education continued to put cash in 529 college savings plans, as assets rose to $45.1 billion in the third quarter, according to data released Tuesday by the College Savings Foundation.

A new report compiled by a Californian environmental financial group charged socially responsible mutual funds (SRIs) with diluting their investment objectives by increasingly moving into mainstream stocks, like Microsoft and Wal-Mart, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

Former Bank of America broker Theodore Sihpol asked the New York State Supreme Court Monday to dismiss criminal charges against him, Reuters reports. Sihpol was the first person that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer arrested in the fund trading scandal, accusing him in September 2003 of colluding with Canary Capital Partners to place illegal trades as late as 8:30 p.m., even providing the hedge fund with an electronic trading platform.

MFS Investment Management’s CEO Robert Manning told a gathering of investors in Toronto, where the firm’s parent company, Sun Life, is headquartered, that the firm is rebounding from the mutual fund trading scandal, Canadian Press reports. The company has paid more than $400 million in settlements, but the damage to its reputation may be more painful and difficult to recover from.