Fund performance

Alternative mutual funds are hot and signs are pointing to a greater expansion of the growing asset class.

Asset management firms with pro-defined contribution viewpoints may want to think twice about asking public sector defined benefit plans for contributions to their funds.

U.S. mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, excluding money-market funds, pulled $6.5 billion in net inflows in the week ended April 17, according to Lipper.

Total money market mutual fund assets dropped by $27.47 billion to $2.595 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 17, according to the Investment Company Institute.

BlackRock said first-quarter earnings rose 10% as its exchange-traded stock funds drew client cash and assets increased.

Three research analysts at Harris Associates, adviser to The Oakmark Funds, have been appointed co-managers of the Oakmark Equity and Income Fund (OAKBX).

Total estimated inflows to long-term mutual funds were $4.83 billion for the week ended Wednesday, April 10, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Mutual fund investors rolled some $2.0 billion into equity mutual funds for the week ended April 10, according to Jeff Tjornehoj, Head of Americas Research at Lipper, who said that: “Lest anyone get too excited about the inflows, they were the lightest weekly net sales of this year.”

Money market assets fell $8.9 billion to $2.6 trillion for the week ended April 10, according to Investment Company Institute data.

Investors poured $16.9 billion into exchange-traded funds in March, bringing the first-quarter total to $53.1 billion, according to data from Morningstar.

Investors poured a record $246 billion into mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the first quarter, according to industry tracker, Strategic Insight.

Mutual funds gained $8.84 billion for the week ended Wednesday, April 3, according to the Investment Company Institute.

A quarterly Northern Trust survey of investment managers reveals that they were optimistic about the U.S. economy in the first quarter of 2013, buoyed by their positive expectations for housing, jobs and corporate profits in the face of across-the-board federal budget cuts went into effect on March 1.

Pimco’s 0-5 Year High Yield Corporate Bond ETF reported $204.1 million of inflows on April 8, the same day the SPDR Barclays High Yield Bond ETF recorded its second-biggest daily redemption since its inception more than five years ago, equal to about $378 million worth of shares, Bloomberg reports.

OppenheimerFunds has named Mark Hamilton chief investment officer, Asset Allocation, effective April 8.

Virtus Investment Partners reported a 56% organic growth rate in net flows for long-term, open-end mutual funds in Q1 2013.

Janus Capital Group has appointed Enrique Chang chief investment officer of equities and asset allocation.

Global exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products continued their asset gathering in Q1, led by equity products, with record global net inflows of $73.4 billion, according to ETFGI’s Global ETF and ETP industry insights report for Q1.

For the third consecutive week ended April 3, equity exchange-traded funds experienced net outflows, losing some $800 million, while their conventional mutual fund brethren took in $3.0 billion—for their thirteenth consecutive week of net inflows (bringing their year-to-date total to +$78.9 billion), according to data from Lipper.

Asset managers are constantly looking for new ways to gather assets for their firms.