Special Program Root Tag

ProShare on a $9 Billion Roll But Facing New Competition

Fidelity Investments has launched three new mutual funds to help investors continue to build diversified investment portfolios.

The vast majority of U.S. employees surveyed are happy with being automatically enrolled in their companies’ 401(k) plan, according to a new study of employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Beginning early next year, Fidelity Investments will enable investors to backtest their trading strategies online at no cost through a service called Wealth-Lab Pro.

Moody’s Investors Service issued a warning that recent strategic decisions by executives at Fidelity Investments, including Chairman Edward Johnson, have failed to put it in a strong position with regards to competitors and that many of Fidelity’s divisions have low profit margins. Moody’s also stressed that the future of the company is in question as 77-year-old Johnson hasn’t issued a leadership succession plan.

Compensation experts say the recent credit crunch could cause employee bonuses on Wall Street to drop 5% to 10% from last year.

Between Sarbanes-Oxley, the late-trading and market-timing scandals of 2003 and other reasons for a tightening in the mutual fund industry’s oversight, it’s no wonder fund directors are working more and quitting more.

Nasdaq took its first leap into the derivatives business on Wednesday with its $652 million all-cash acquisition of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the third-biggest options exchange and the oldest in the nation.

ProFunds brings two new exchange-traded funds to market today, the ProShares UltraShort FTSE/Xinhua 25 ETF and the ProShares UltraShort MSCI Japan ETF. Both short stocks in those markets, seeking twice the inverse of the daily movement of the underlying index.

The 14th fund manager to leave Janus since the beginning of 2006 is . . . Minyoung Sohn, manager of the $6.9 billion Janus Growth and Income Fund, the Rocky Mountain News reports. Sohn, who told Janus “it was the right time to move along,” said Janus spokeswoman Shelley Peterson, will be replaced by Marc Pinto. No news yet of where Sohn is moving.

The Dreyfus Premier Greater China Fund, which has risen 149% in value over the past 12 months, has beaten all other funds on the market, MSNBC reports.

Analyzing the total valuation of the stock markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China, or BRIC markets, as compared to their combined gross domestic product, Morgan Stanley and Bloomberg conclude that the is still room for exponential growth in these emerging markets.

While one of the big trends in the mutual fund industry has been its embracement of sophisticated alternative investments, mutual funds and hedge funds are both about to become even more complex in the next year, the Financial Times reports.

Assets under management in China have grown an incredible 60% over the past three years, and while growth won’t continue at this rate, it will still increase at a clip of 24% a year over the next 10 years.

September flows into hedge funds were the third lowest this year, netting only $18.6 billion as some investors fled funds with subprime exposure, Reuters reports, citing data from TrimTabs Investment Research.

Renown portfolio manager Bill Miller of Legg Mason recently wrote to his investors in a letter that he is taking advantage of the depressed prices on financial services, housing and consumer stocks because he fully expects a turnaround, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Pimco Chief Investment Officer Bill Gross told CNBC that not only will the subprime crisis continue to another two years or longer, but that it will likely worsen.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission has warned the mutual fund industry to be responsible about its growth, marketing and advertising, and risk controls, and to be sure to hire adequate experts and cut back on short-term trading, which is fueling market speculation.

Lipper announced Tuesday that it has devised a method of rating target-date funds, which are hard to assess as a group since their asset allocations and glidepaths vary so widely and they themselves are structured as funds-of-funds, Reuters reports.

Morningstar has been working with mutual fund companies for the past year to develop a tool to permit investors to determine a fund’s exposure to derivatives, Dow Jones reports.