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In the latest move in the ETF pricing war, BlackRock unveiled a series of cost-cutting initiatives aimed, almost directly, at rival Vanguard, which last week enacted some price-saving moves of its own.

Forward has added a global healthcare team to its ranks and plans to offer a long/short equity strategy investing globally across all healthcare sectors and market capitalizations, in early 2013.

John Hancock has made its recently renamed "Retirement Choices At" series of target date funds available to retirement plan sponsors.

With an eye toward the future and likely also toward steering the Facebook generation toward its own website, Fidelity Investments launched a new app for Facebook, called FutureTimeline, which allows users to set long-term financial goals and track their savings toward shorter-term goals, like vacations or buying a new car.

London-based Northill Capital has agreed to buy a majority interest in Riverbridge Partners, a Minneapolis-based specialist investment manager of small, mid and large cap US equity growth portfolios for institutional and high net worth investors.

The fast-growing PIMCO Total Return ETF (BOND) hit yet another milestone last week in crossing the $3 billion mark in assets, Morningstar reports.

MFS Investment Management has expanded its Defined Contribution Investments Only specialist sales team from seven to nine, with the addition of new positions in the Mid-West and Southeast.

In the past three years, bond funds have been raking in the assets.

FISCO Funds Management LLC, a U.S.-based family of alternative investment managers, and OP 8 Analytics is teaming up to launch a new investment management company, CARF Management.

Neuberger Berman is bringing value investment management shop Glickenhaus & Co. and its $900 million in client assets for high net worth individuals and non-profit institutions into its fold.

More than 4,000 shareholders in Baron Funds crammed into the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York City last Friday to hear investment and market analysis along with songs belted out by Celine Dion, Harry Connick, Jr. and others.

Last month, the Board of Trustees of the Huntington Funds voted to close and liquidate the Huntington Macro 100 Fund, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Fidelity Investments has named Papillion, Nebraska, as the site for its new $200 million data center, which it plans to have constructed and operating by 2014.

The $696 million Invesco Balanced-Risk Commodity Strategy Fund is closing to new investors on November 15, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The Charles Schwab Corporation has agreed to buy ThomasPartners, a dividend income-focused asset management firm with $2.3 billion in assets, for $85 million in cash and additional payments contingent on future growth in assets.

'Tis the season when the leaves change, the National Football League is kicking its season into second gear, the Yankees are once again chasing another championship, and...yes, there's another mutual fund conference to attend.

FlexShares, the exchange-traded funds arm of Northern Trust Corp., launched its first actively managed ETF, the FlexShares Ready Access Variable Income Fund (RAVI), a money market ETF that will invest in global short-duration, investment-grade fixed-income products, including U.S. Treasuries.

Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007, the convergence between traditional and alternative products has been widely discussed, with ramifications expected to affect the industry in a significant fashion.

NEWS SCAN

'Tis the season when the leaves change, the National Football League is kicking its season into second gear, the Yankees are once again chasing another championship, and...yes, there's another mutual fund conference to attend.