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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 178.08 to 11836.04 Wednesday, reversing two days of declines. The market reacted to comments made by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at a press conference on the Fed’s monetary policy.

Raymond James is partnering with Actiance to provide financial advisors access to compliant social media tools, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the firm is offering advisors optional marketing support with access to a library of pre-approved content and tools to measure engagement.

Be they young or be they old, people across America are worried about their financial prospects in retirement and the economic direction of the nation, according to a survey of Gen X, Gen Y and Baby Boomers by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.

Seventy-five percent of U.S. companies that suspended their 401(k) matching contributions between January 2008 and January 2010 have restored the retirement savings perk in the past year, according to an analysis by professional services firm Towers Watson.

Three-quarters of 260 employers that suspended 401(k) matches due to the recession have restored them, Towers Watson said in a report Wednesday. Of these companies, 74% have brought these matches back to the levels they were before the recession, and only 23% have brought them back at a lower level.

Eaton Vance has launched the Eaton Vance Multi-Strategy All Market Fund, a new fund that can invest in a broad spectrum of asset classes, including stocks, bonds and alternatives. The fund’s managers will employ fundamental analysis, quantitative portfolio optimization and risk management techniques.

Lincoln Financial Group has introduced Lincoln Alliance, a mutual fund retirement solution designed for small-to-mid-sized retirement plans with assets of $2 million or more. As typical of large plans, the offering includes independent fiduciary support from Ibbotson Associates, investment advice from Morningstar, a wide range of investment options from a lineup of 9,000 funds across 610 fund families, annual plan reviews and guidance on ERISA Section 404(c).

Be they young or be they old, people across America are worried about their financial prospects in retirement and the economic direction of the nation, a survey of Gen X, Gen Y and Baby Boomers by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America found.

Investment banking and brokerage firm Stephens Inc. has named John Baumgartner managing director and co-head of equity capital markets.

A Georgetown University professor has proposed a different idea in the ongoing debate over how investment advisors should be effectively regulated: outsource the heavy lifting to accounting firms.

IndexIQ has expanded its IQ series of 16 funds with the IQ Global Alternatives ETF Model Portfolio. The investment vehicle uses liquid, transparent, low-cost alternative exchange-traded funds to achieve diversification, growth of capital and low volatility.

Affluent pre-retirees with investable assets of at least $100,000 are more comfortable staying in the market than they were two years ago, a report from Phoenix Marketing International shows.

Societe Generale, the French investment bank, says that its new “relative value” algorithm will give fund managers the ability to change their participation to a stock’s performance relative to an underlying index.

Marketing expert Marie Swift says the “Marketing Ideas, Rapid Fire” session at the recent Garrett Planning Network annual retreat yielded a bunch of winning marketing ideas for financial advisors. Which ones can you or your firm implement right now?

Blue chips fell 297.05 points to 11657.96, the second day of losses as investors reacted negatively to economic news out of Greece. All but one of the component stocks ended down.

High-net-worth investors are focused on preserving wealth rather than taking short-term risks in today’s volatile markets.

S&P Capital IQ mutual fund analyst Todd Rosenbluth highlights three five-star mutual funds for advisors and analysts to keep an eye on this year.

Vanguard this week announced plans to introduce two international bond index funds for U.S. investors. The two funds -- Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund and Vanguard Emerging Markets Government Bond Index Fund -- are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2012 pending review of the registration statements by the SEC.

IndexIQ has expanded its IQ series of 16 funds with the IQ Global Alternatives ETF Model Portfolio. The investment vehicle uses liquid, transparent, low-cost alternative exchange-traded funds to achieve diversification, growth of capital and low volatility.

What is there to do on LinkedIn everyday? As it turns out, there are several powerful free tools that can help advisors market their practices as well as help them search effectively for new clients. Financial Planning senior editor Donna Mitchell says that planners who aren’t taking advantage of these functions (remember: they’re free) probably should be.