Fund performance

Waddell & Reed Financial, the Overland Park, Kansas, mutual fund complex, said it earned $45.6 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, in the first quarter.

The Bloomberg Consumer Confidence Index climbed for the fourth straight month, reaching -42.6, the best reading since the end of February.

Morgan Stanley’s global wealth management business net revenue rose to $3.4 billion for the first quarter, while its total advisor ranks dipped to 17,800 in line with previously reported plans for cuts.The wealth management business’ net revenue was up from $3.1 billion from the previous year due to higher commissions and asset-based revenue. The group had pre-tax income of $348 million compared with $278 million for the first quarter of 2010.

T. Rowe Price reported Thursday that quarterly earnings surged, but missed analysts’ lofty expectations.The Baltimore-based fund company reported a 27% increased in profits from a year earlier to $194.6 million, or 72 cents a share as net revenue rose 23% to $682.4 million.

Aided by a strong tailwind from market appreciation, Janus Capital Group reported an increase in profits in the first quarter as assets under management and revenue rose.The Denver mutual fund company’s earnings increased 21% to $37.9 million, or 21 cents per share, from a year earlier. Revenue was up 7.5% to $265.4 million.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index rose 0.4% in March to 114.1 (2004 = 100), following a 1.0% rise in February and a 0.2% gain in January. This puts the index at an all-time high, The Conference Board

BlackRock said it earned 35% more in this year’s first quarter, than last, helped by a “robust” pipeline of assignments for its software and technology services business.

Nearly half, 48%, of chief financial officers and senior comptrollers expect the economy to improve over the next six months, a marked improvement from the 30% who thought so in October, a survey of 318 executives by accounting and audit firm Grant Thornton found.

State Street’s top executive says the Boston-based company wants to continue to “fortify the foundation” without losing sight of opportunities for further growth.“I look back over the last couple of years, and in spite of what looks like a recovered market there is still a lot of instability,” Jay Hooley, State Street’s chief executive officer said in an interview on Tuesday. “We want to be sure our foundation is solid in terms of capital and risk management and make sure we have returned to basics in terms of our core asset servicing and asset management businesses, but also we want to be sure we are investing in enhancing our product capabilities. Our focus is really the whole package.”

BlackRock has launched the BlackRock Investment Institute, whose purpose is to provide investment insights to clients.

Job listings rose year-over-year 23% and job searches rose 10% in March, CareerBuilder said. In addition, in a recent CareerBuilder survey, 31% of full-time workers said they will look for a new position as the economy improves, and 77% said they would be receptive to a new opportunity in 2011.

Seventy percent of 88 institutional investors surveyed by Northern Trust expect inflation to increase over the next six months and 62% are bracing for a spike in market volatility.

Fewer workers plan to use their tax refund to pay off bills, and more plan to use it for savings, indicating stronger faith in the economy, a survey of 3,900 people by CareerBuilder found.

Escalating global inflation is the biggest challenge for businesses struggle to recover from the recession, according to the latest Global Economic Conditions survey of 2,300 accountants by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence rose to 67 in the first quarter, up from 62 in the fourth quarter—showing a measurable amount of faith in the economy since a reading above 50 indicates a positive outlook.

Companies paid out $19 billion in dividends in the first quarter of 2011, Standard & Poor’s said. And the number of companies increasing dividends rose 27.8% to 510, up from 399 in the first quarter of 2010.

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index rose in March, its sixth straight monthly gain. Now at 100.9, it is up from 100.3 in February and has gained 8% from a year ago.

Moody’s Investors Service has lowered its outlook on Fidelity Investments from “stable” to “negative.”

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to -46.9 in the week ended March 27, its first increase in five weeks. The index is based on telephone interviews with 1,000 consumers aged 18 and over.

Chief executive officers’ outlook for their company and economy improved markedly in the first quarter from the end of 2010, the Business Roundtable First Quarter 2011 CEO Economic Outlook Survey shows.