Fund performance

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.

Global equities are benefiting from an increasingly positive outlook by investors, according to the latest BoA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers.

U.S. banks have finally started extending loans to consumers for the first time since the credit crisis began in 2008.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the U.S. rose 1% in December to 112.4, following a 1.1% gain in November and a 0.4% rise in October.

For all those bears out there it’s time to turn those frowns upside down.

With stocks up for the seventh consecutive week, Bob Doll, BlackRock chief equity strategist, sees no reason to expect a plunge.

Global equities are benefiting from an increasingly positive outlook by investors, according to the latest BoA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers.Just over half of fund managers, 55%, say they’re overweight in global equities, the largest proportion since July 2007. Just last month, only 40% of fund managers said they were overweight in international stocks. The additional assets appear to have come from bonds—54% of fund managers are now underweight in bonds, from 47% in December.

The Charles Schwab Corporation announced on Tuesday that fourth quarter revenues soared 14% year-over-year and December net new assets grew to more than $11 billion, the highest level in 23 months.

For equity funds, 2010 was a solid year, with the average fund rising 16.57% and 98% of all equity funds in positive territory, according to Lipper. Sector equity funds rose 19.02%, U.S. domestic equity funds rose 17.14%, world equity funds were up 13.67% and mixed asset funds delivered 12.02%.

It may turn out to be a glass-half-full kind of year, after all.

The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence rallied to 62 in the fourth quarter, up from 50 in the third quarter.