News Feed

BlackRock said Thursday it is moving the production of its research on exchange-traded funds to a new unit and the long-timer producer of its "ETF Landscape" reports will be leaving the company.

Given the low interest rates banks are paying on deposits these days, you might not think it’s much of a big deal that Thursday marks the end of an 80-year-old ban on banks paying interest on business accounts. But if you thought that, you are clearly not a financial advisor working at a bank.

After all the blood, sweat and tears that has gone into the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, a new survey revealed that almost half of all bankers do not think it will help prevent risks to the financial system.

Even if the politicians in Washington do manage to raise the debt ceiling, all the red ink and all the money printed by the Federal Reserve to prop up the economy over the past three years make it likely, according to some experts, that inflation could be on the rise and that reality has many investors understandably unnerved.

U.S. Bancorp has launched its fourth multiple series trust to support mutual funds, called the Managed Portfolio Series.

SunAmerica Asset Management has launched the SunAmerica Global Trends Fund, a fund sub-advised by Wellington Management and that combines 10 global asset classes with a rules-based asset allocation strategy that seeks to move in and out of changing markets. The fund will invest primarily in futures contracts and also use technical analysis. It will have between 0% and 10% exposure to each of the global asset classes.

Half of all companies say they are likely to take such defensive actions as cutting capital spending and laying people off if the U.S. government defaults on its obligations, a survey of 305 finance and treasury executives by the Association for Financial Professionals found.

BlackRock plans to get active in active ETFs, its chairman and chief executive said this week.

Sharing too much and assuming that you always know what is best are among the surefire ways of pointing clients to the door.

Emerging Global has launched a suite of 11 emerging markets exchange-traded funds under the brand of GEMS (Global Emerging Market Sector) Funds. Three of the funds are rebranded and eight are brand new.