Money Management Executive Latest News

The bull market for gold could be in jeopardy now that the war has broken out. Even the top gold funds are losing some of their lustrous appeal, with the average gold fund now down 11.3% year to date. Investors who placed speculative bets in that arena in recent months with the hopes of a continued winning streak are second-guessing themselves.

With geopolitical tensions between communist North Korea and emerging South Korea now searing, the once trendy practice of turning to emerging-market Korean funds is long gone.

Fixed income, balanced and retirement funds are helping Fidelity weather the economic storm, even at a time when the world’s biggest mutual fund firm saw its profits decline 39% last year.

Although Enron and the Department of Labor had wanted the bankrupt company to pick up tab for its $4 million annual retirement administration fees, Enron employees will have to shoulder that cost, Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New York has ruled.

If state regulators have their way, variable annuities might be regulated just as securities.

As worries about the war with Iraq mounted in February, investors pour even more money into bond funds and took out even more from equity funds. All types of funds combined, the industry suffered $32 billion in net outflows in February, according to Lipper of New York.

A quick and victorious war lasting no more than two or three months is what most mutual fund managers anticipate will take place in Iraq, but if that does not happen, it could spell serious trouble for the markets, which have already factored such a scenario in. Even those enthusiastic about a quick resolution temper their remarks by saying an unimaginable disaster could take place, instead.

They call it yellow metal. And investors are just mad about its enormous returns in the last two years. But the bull market for gold could be in jeopardy now that a clear path to war has been determined and the U.S. has begun its air assault on Baghdad.

With geopolitical tensions between communist North Korea and emerging South Korea now searing, the once trendy practice of turning to emerging-market Korean funds is long gone.

Jude T. Driscoll is the newly knighted president and chief executive officer of Delaware Investments and Lincoln National Investments, both of which are the investment management subsidiaries of Lincoln Financial Group of Philadelphia. Lincoln National Corp., in turn, is the ultimate owner of Lincoln Financial