Fund performance

The State Street Investor Confidence Index, which gauges the confidence of institutional investors as measured by their exposure to equities, rose eight points to 104.4 in December, up from 96.4 in November. A reading of 100 is neutral.

In December, adviser confidence in the U.S. economy and stock market reached its highest mark since February 2007, according to the Adviser Confidence Index, a benchmark that gauges adviser views.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index decreased slightly in December to 52.5, down from 54.3 in November.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,573.49 on the last trading day before Christmas. That's up 10.6 percent from a year ago. And 37.5% from two years ago.

With low interest rates set to persist, yield will become the all-encompassing priority for investors in 2011, prompting them to move out of government bonds and cash back into equities, corporate bonds and real estate, Aberdeen Asset Management predicts.

More than half of the people in eight nations around the world cite the economy as their biggest concern, and that jumps to 70% for Americans and 71% for Japanese, a poll of 4,000 people over the Internet by Survey Sampling finds.

Americans’ financial outlook has improved somewhat but is still muted, causing a majority to plan to save more and continue to cut back on spending, a Harris Interactive survey of 2,331 adults in early December found.

Although stocks didn’t rally until the fourth quarter of this year, that momentum could continue into 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal’s “Heard on the Street” column Wednesday. Thus, the two-year-long aversion to stocks and stock funds could finally be coming to an end.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney characterized its outlook for 2011 with the phrase “recovery becomes expansion.” The business-cycle recovery in the global economy that began in the summer of 2009 is now an expansion, it says in a new report.

Get ready for a strong recovery in 2011, as corporate profits will boost the markets, predicts kasina CEO Steven Miyao. By mid-year, positive flows into equities will exceed flows into bonds, he said.

Americans’ financial outlook is improving, according to the December Country Financial Security Index. Thirty-eight percent rate their financial security positively, and another 15% sense their financial security is improving.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased 1.1% in November to 112.4, following a 0.4% increase in October and a 0.6% increase in September.

U.S. equities are the primary beneficiary of improving global investor sentiment, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for December.About 44% of respondents expect the world’s economy to strengthen in 2011. And with the continuing problems in Europe’s debt market, investors are turning to U.S. equities, according to the survey.

Ninety-six percent of institutional investors overwhelmingly believe Europe will be able to avoid a “full-fledged crisis,” according to the inaugural Barclays Capital Global Macro Survey.

The outlook of chief executive officers of leading companies improved significantly in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, according to the Business Roundtable’s 2010 CEO Economic Outlook Survey.

Recent, surprisingly positive signs for the economy and the markets are on the rise-indicating that investors might return to equities and equity funds in 2011.

Despite a recovering economy, mass affluent investors believe the recession isn’t quite over.

PHOENIX—If the U.S. economy grows at Goldman Sachs’ forecast of 2.7% in 2011 and 3.6%, this will represent three years of respectable growth, said Heather Shemilt, managing director and head of the pensions, endowments and foundations group at Goldman Sachs. Shemilt was addressing Information Management Network’s “Super Bowl of Indexing” here Monday. In the first three quarters of this year, the U.S. GDP has grown 2.63%.

The only software that really has intrinsic value is the software that can predict returns on mutual funds, exchange-traded funds or single stocks.

The global economy is in the middle of a scary macroeconomic environment, with fiscal imbalances in Europe, Japan and the U.S. and increased regulation, which is confusing companies as well as individuals, according to T. Rowe Price’s director of global equity.