Fund performance

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.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Americans need a financial plan to turn them around. They’ve been consuming too much and saving too little for the better part of two decades, Bill Gross, PIMCO’s co-founder and co-chief investment officer, told a rapt audience of financial planners at the opening of the Schwab Impact 2011 conference.

In 2009, U.S. banking regulators subjected 19 of America's largest and most important banks (the "Too Big To Fail" ones) to so-called stress-tests in order to understand how well each bank's capital reserves would meet different challenging economic scenarios.

With Europe in the grip of a massive debt crisis, U.S. unemployment still near double digits and global markets roiling on what seems an unending rollercoaster ride, the impact from the 2008 financial meltdown has been nothing if not severe.

Although the State Street Investor Confidence Index is still below 100, indicating institutional investors’ appetite for equities and other risky assets is neutral, the index jumped significantly by 6.7 points to a reading of 96.7 in October—underscoring marked and continued improvement in institutional investors’ outlook.

A Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of global fund managers makes it abundantly clear that just about everyone is sure Greece will default on its foreign debt obligations. And while this isn’t good news, the view from top money managers is that this eventuality has already been priced into the market and most are more optimistic about the global economy than they were last month.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index rose 0.2% in September to 116.4 (2004 = 100), following a 0.3% increase in August and a 0.6% rise in July.

NEW YORK—With deleveraging debt now the modus operandi of the U.S. economy, the “tailwind of economic growth has been taken away,” said Curtis V. Arledge, vice chairman and chief executive officer of investment management at BNY Mellon.

American workers are becoming more and more pessimistic about their retirement prospects, according to a new survey by Sun Life Financial, but those who have invested in annuities or hold long-term care insurance are decidedly more confident.

Tune out. That’s essentially the message from Eleanor Blayney, consumer advocate with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.

Wall Street high rollers are expecting big bonuses at year-end—especially hedge fund managers and executives at boutique banks.