Fund performance

Thirty-four percent of the 3,171 adults that The Harris Poll surveyed in February expect the economy to improve in the coming year, 42% expect it to stay the same and 25% think it could get worse.

Rising markets and belt tightening boosted asset managers’ net margins to 23.4% in the fourth quarter, up from 21.1% in the third quarter, kasina reported Monday. This puts margins back to the level they were at before the credit crisis of 2008.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose 5.6 points this month to 70.4, up from 64.8 in January.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index, which measures the buying and selling patterns of institutional investors, fell 9.2 points in February to 91.6, down from 100.8 in January. In North America, the index fell 6.8 points to 92.5, down from 99.3.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index rose 0.1% in January to 112.3, following a 0.8% rise in December and a 1.1% increase in November.

Fund managers are the most bullish they have been on global equities they have been in a decade, with 67% overweight the asset class, according to the February BoA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers, which surveyed 188 fund managers with total assets of $569 billion under management. This is up from 55% in January and 40% in December.

The Country Financial Security Index rose 0.8 points to 64.9 in February, marking the first time the index has risen at the start of the year since Country Financial began the index in 2007.

Smaller Asian nations, namely Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, will lead global growth over the next year, asst management, private equity and hedge fund executives said in a survey conducted by RBC Capital Markets.

Seventy percent of investors believe the S&P 500 will increase by the end of the year, compared with only 33% who were bullish on the market in August, a survey by MoneyShow.com found.

Retail investors in municipals are shaken, but still standing, after a relentless barrage of negative media hype surrounding forecasts for massive municipal bankruptcies and defaults later this year.

Consumer Reports said that its Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker Index rose for the third straight month in a row, to 58.7. The index was 54.2 last month and 53.4 in February 2010.

SAN DIEGO – After a difficult three years, advisers have a lot to be optimistic about.

Americans’ outlook on the current condition of the national and local economies has improved somewhat, a survey of 2,002 adults conducted by Hart Research Associates for Citibank shows.

A sense of optimism is returning to the American people. A Harris Interactive poll of 2,566 adults in early January shows.

Chief financial officers’ outlook for the economy and their own companies, according to the most recent quarterly “CFO Outlook Survey” by Financial Executives International and Baruch College.

T. Rowe Price Group announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on Friday as assets under management soared on inflows, particularly to target-date retirement portfolios.

Although the economic recovery is relatively slower in the U.S. than abroad, U.S. CEOs’ outlook has improved considerably, a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers finds.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased in January to 60.6, up from 53.3 in December.

BlackRock said net income reached $657 million in its fourth quarter, up $401 million or 157% from a year earlier. Net income for all of 2010 more than doubled, to $2.1 billion, on revenue of $8.6 billion.

The hiring outlook for the next six months looks good, according to the most recent survey from the National Association for Business Economics.