Special Program Root Tag

The much-awaited opening of trading in Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Total Return ETF arrived this morning. By noon, 345,800 shares had been traded. Missing from the ringing of the bell at the New York Stock Exchange: the fund’s manager, Bill Gross.

Wedbush Securities has launched a trading platform provider that the firm says will dramatically speed up trades for fund managers and other institutional investors, as well as give them better control over their transaction costs.

StanCorp Equities has appointed Jennifer Giampaolo as a pension consultant for its Orange County Retirement Plans Office, responsible for retirement plan sales in Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. She will also serve Arizona and New Mexico.

The Principal Financial Group has entered into a definitive agreement to buy a 60 percent stake in Claritas Investments, Ltd., a Sao Paulo-based mutual fund and asset management company with more than $1.8 billion in assets under management.

Another financial services firm has entered the fray over providing customer’s high functioning mobile access.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management yesterday unveiled two funds today: a managed futures fund and a short duration income fund. These launches follow the launch of a rising dividend growth fund on Monday.

Bill Gross and his team of bond specialists at Pacific Investment Management Company built the Total Return Fund into the world’s largest mutual fund, with more than a quarter-billion dollars in assets. Can he (and they) repeat the trick, with a Total Return exchange-traded fund?

J.P. Morgan Asset Management said that it has completed its reorganization of its Retirement Plan Services to fully align its sales force with retirement plan advisors.

After a strong start in February, domestic stock mutual funds saw cash outflows of $322 million in the most recent weekly statistics.

Fidelity Investments has launched an initiative dubbed “Thinking Big,” for publicly promoting the research of its investment analysts and experts. The firm will launch the initiative in conjunction with its sponsorship of the 2012 TED conference, an annual event that brings together global thought leaders.

State Street Global Advisors has launched two equity exchange-traded funds designed to track MSCI Global Equity Indices, with one focusing on emerging markets and the other widely covering both developed and developing countries.

Larry Fink wants the asset management industry and government to take the lead in propping up investors’ morale in a flagging market.

Mutual of Omaha has named Seth Friedman to serve as 401(k) national sales director. He takes over for Michael Ziccardi, who left the firm in December to join Rekon Intrelligence, which works with advisors to help them build out their businesses.

This is the week that actively managed exchange-traded funds get their biggest booster shot since they first arrived, less than five years ago.

On Feb. 14, Vanguard's 64,000 Facebook fans received virtual candy hearts with the messages:

Institutional investors continued the pattern established late in 2011 of reducing allocations to equities, according to results of the State Street Investor Confidence Index for February 2012.

American Beacon Advisors has added to its offerings two growth funds, one focused on small-caps and the other mid-caps, managed by Stephens Investment Management Group.

The chief economist of The Dreyfus Corporation said Wednesday that world growth will slow down again in 2012, based on International Monetary Fund calculation methods.

Alternative mutual fund shop Direxion has hired Greg Blue to serve as senior regional sales director, focusing on the Florida market.

Joshua Levine, a former head of the America’s institutional sales team at The Permal Group, has joined BlackRock to lead the firm’s public and corporate pension plan effort in the East Coast.