Fund performance

Buttressed by favorable interest rates and investors looking for shelter from falling equity prices, U.S. fixed annuity sales set a new quarterly record. Total U.S. sales of fixed annuities rose to an estimated $27.1 billion for the third quarter, according to a Beacon Research study of 51 insurance companies representing 87% of the market. Sales were up 54% from last year's third quarter, and up 10% from the previous quarter, marking the highest sales since the study began in 2003.

The unprecedented financial crisis of 2008 has redefined everyone's perception of risk, sending private wealth managers back to the drawing board to make sure clients really understand how risky complicated products can be.

NEW YORK - "There is so much stimulus in the economy. The punchbowls are at the party, they're spiked-but no one is drinking yet." That was the apt summary of the current economic and investment picture by Rodney Olea, manager of the AHA Limited Maturity Fixed Income Fund, speaking at SunStar's press briefing for Lipper Leaders here last week.

Everywhere you look these days, people are talking about green cars, green energy, greenhouse gases and even green mutual funds. This new demand for all things green is enough to make some money managers green with envy.

Faced with economic difficulties, almost one out of every five, or 18%, of Americans are dipping into their 401(k) savings, Bank of America found in its annual Retirement Savings Survey.

Reserve Funds has added insult to injury, literally, to the investors in its Primary Fund. The fund, which broke the buck on Sept. 16 and has been struggling to return investors’ assets ever since, is now valuing the remaining balance at 98.5 cents per share.

Investors continued to rush to the safety of cash this week, putting an additional $29.06 billion in money market mutual funds, for a total of $3.743 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Seeing traffic on Yahoo’s finance website and Marketwatch.com burgeon, Fidelity Investments has decided to try its hand at financial news for itself, and is revamping its website as a result.

Confidence among affluent and millionaire investors sunk further in November, according to Spectrem Group.The Spectrem Millionaire Investor Index fell 15 points in November, to an all-time low of 39.

For all of the reports on dismal negative 20% declines in hedge funds this year, PerTrac Financial Solutions found that if the net is cast wider, sound performers can, indeed, be found.

Besides supporting four money market funds with exposure to structured investment vehicles with $420 million in capital of its own, Legg Mason has signed a one-year renewal with a bank to support $355 million in SIV securities. As of Nov. 30, the par value of SIV exposure in the funds was $2.8 billion, down from $10 billion as of Oct. 31, 2007.

With the markets siphoning value from mutual funds and investors running for cover to the tune of billions of dollars in redemptions a month, Fidelity Investments is trying to hold onto customers’ assets by promoting FDIC-insured certificates of deposit.

Finance and technology stocks have put the Fidelity Magellan fund in a worse position than its benchmark, the Standard & Poor’s 500, and even the fund’s manager says he’s disappointed, Dow Jones reports.

The Rydex Investments AdvisorBenchmarking Advisor Confidence Index, which gauges advisers’ outlook on the economy and the stock market, rose 4% in November to 82.46, up from 79.07 in October.

Be it large-, medium- or small-cap, value or growth, there are buying opportunities galore in the stock market, according to veteran Lord Abbett value manager Robert Fetch. “I am seeing valuations I haven’t seen in decades, across the capitalization spectrum,” Fetch told Barron’s.

Don't believe the retirement income hype.

The signs are clear, but few firms are making decisions that will benefit them in the long term. The financial crisis is prompting firms to feel forced to react and make changes to their short-term and long-term strategies.

The $600 million in new assets that Horizon Cash Management captured in the third quarter could be a sign of things to come for the Chicago company and other cash managers.

The $600 million in new assets that Horizon Cash Management captured in the third quarter could be a sign of things to come for the Chicago company and other cash managers.

First the good news. The average 401(k) plan balance is down only 14% this year to $68,000 from $79,000 in 2007, according to Hewitt Associates. And since the precipitous decline in the stock market of the past few months, only 4% of participants have decided to stop contributing.