Fund performance

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- A member of the President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers as the mortgage-led global credit crisis erupted said Monday that the last big weapon in the Federal Reserve Board’s arsenal to create strong growth is to avoid “tinkering around the edges” of the economy and aggressively reset expectations.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index rose two points in November to 97.2. In North America, the index rose 4.7 points to 95.2, and in Europe, it rose 5.4 points to 101.5. In Asia, however, the index fell 4.2 points to 94.6.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index surged 15.1 points in November to 56.0, up from 40.9.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index rose 2 points in November to 97.2. In North America, the index rose 4.7 points to 95.2, and in Europe, it rose 5.4 points to 101.5. In Asia, however, the index fell 4.2 points to 94.6.

The asset management industry's agility following the financial crisis, particularly its ability to improve profitability, is masking long-term challenges to growth, according to McKinsey & Co.

Investors’ continuing obsession with purchasing Treasury bonds is a sign of ‘irrational exuberance,’ says the chairman of investment manager T. Rowe Price when 10-year yields are under 2.0%.

The volatility that has gripped the markets in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has changed the investment management game forever.

Governments are falling, bond yields are zigzagging by whole percentage points and markets around the world are locking up. The eurozone turmoil risks turning into a global crisis.

A majority of finance professionals are cautiously optimistic about growth in 2012, a survey by Accounting Principals, a finance and accounting staffing company, found.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased sharply in October, by 0.9%, to 117.4 (2004 = 100). This follows a 0.1% increase in September and a 0.3% increase in August.

Nearly nine out of 10, 87%, of Americans think the country will fall into another recession within the next two years, a Country Financial survey finds. However, only half, 51%, say they are prepared to handle it financially.

Calling the odds of a recession in the U.S. and beyond “uncomfortably high,” Morgan Stanley Smith Barney says it has shifted to an overweight position in safe haven assets and is underweighting risk assets. The change is “the most significant change to our tactical asset allocation in more than two years,” Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Chief Investment Officer Jeff Applegate and two colleagues wrote in a November markets report.

NEW YORK—“We believe in back-to-basics, commonsense investing with the goal of achieving some return above inflation while seeking lower volatility,” said Suzanna Hutchins, investment manager of global funds at Newton, an affiliate of BNY Mellon.

Corporate acquisitions using overpriced shares of stock rarely do much to cushion the decline the shares eventually suffer, according to a new study.

A ray of hope flashed across Twitter, amid the unrelenting, assaulting news on jobs, debt, housing, foreclosures and bankruptcies-from Jim Cramer's usually derisive TheStreet.com, of all places.

Affluent investors are very much in tune with the state of the nation, and except for some attractive stock valuations, they don’t like what they see. These was the main finding of a survey that Fidelity Investments took of 3,000 affluent investors, polling them in person or via a webinar at an Inside/Out Roundtable at 85 Fidelity Investor Centers nationwide.

NEW YORK-- Stifel Financial Corp. Chairman, President and Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski urged pessimistic members of the financial services industry to go back and read a 1979 BusinessWeek article titled “Death of Equities."

BOSTON—“The greatest stimulus package in the world is certainty. For the past two years we have not had certainty,” Bob Reynolds, president and chief executive of Putnam Investments told the Fund Forum USA’s Global Fund Distribution Summit here Tuesday.

"A Random Walk Down Wall Street," written by Princeton economist Burton Malkiel, was first published in 1973.

SAN FRANCISCO -- BlackRock Managing Director and CIO of fixed income portfolios Rick Rieder painted a bleak overall economic picture before an overflow audience at the Schwab Impact conference here Thursday. With Fed policy holding interest rates low, it’s unlikely investors in fixed income will see yields rise far above current levels anytime soon.