Fund performance

In a poll of bank wealth managers a day after Barack Obama was elected to become the 44th president of the United States, 50% said they expect their high-net-worth clients to be negatively impacted by the new administration, SEI found. Twelve percent said they expect a positive impact, but 38% said they were sure whether it will be positive or negative.

While the average equity mutual fund is down 48% and the average hedge fund is down 20% so far this year, one uncanny hedge fund manager, Bernard V. Drury of Drury Capital, has posted incredible year-to-date gains of 60%, The New York Times reports.

PALM BEACH, Fla. - Capturing 401(k) rollovers has been top of mind for mutual fund companies for years. Now, with billions of dollars flowing out of equity funds, $682 billion in September alone, mostly into cash, capturing 401(k) rollovers and moving money out of cash and safe bets back into equities is the name of the game.

Long-short money managers have been breathing a sigh of relief with the end to the Securities and Exchange Commission's ban on short sales of financial stocks. The three-week SEC ban on the short sale of some 1,000 financial stocks that ended Oct. 9 had wreaked havoc among money managers.

PALM BEACH, Fla. - Insurance companies and mutual fund firms are jumping on the bandwagon to provide guaranteed retirement income solutions, but experts say these types of investment options won't see wide adoption rates among the general public until they become a qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) in 401(k) plans.

Volatile markets are shaking up the idea of what makes a star manager, and previous giants are falling to the wayside as new talent with new ideas moves in to fill their place.

Total money market mutual fund assets have increased $21.79 billion to reach $3.608 trillion for the week ending Nov. 5, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Exchange-traded funds continued attracting new investors in October, though most of the month’s $7.3 billion in net inflows came from three big names, according to the National Stock Exchange.

Indicating that it is only the first of at least two immediate job cut waves, Fidelity Investments announced Thursday it will eliminate 2.9% of its 44,400 workforce, or 1,300 positions, by the end of the month. A second layoff, the size of which has yet to be determined, will occur in the first quarter of next year, Fidelity said.

Even as U.S. corporations continue to announce layoffs, investors are beginning to regain faith in the stock markets, according to a poll of 500 investors by MoneyShow.com. Fifty-one percent are bullish on economic conditions, up from 43% in August. In kind, 29% characterize themselves as bearish, down from a steady 39% from July through September.

Man Group’s assets as of the end of the third quarter stood at $67.6 billion a 9% decline since the end of March. Its pretax profit declined 24% to $622 million, as a result of lower fees.

The London interbank offer rates for three-month dollar funds reached a five month low of 2.70625% on Tuesday, but banks still failed to loan money and commercial paper issuance also lags.

The price-to-earnings of stocks and other fundamentals have “improved radically,” John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, told Reuters. “It seems to me that people have lost sight of the fact that the fundamentals have improved radically.”

Seeking safety, investors have flocked to Treasury bonds, but now investors are beginning to develop renewed respect for municipal bonds, which are not only tax-free but delivering higher yields, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Encouraged by new lows in the Nikkei Stock Average, as well as other major indices, Japanese investors are buying up stocks, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports.

Due to what it calls deteriorating weighted average credit quality, along with a volatile and falling net asset value, Moody’s has downgraded its rating for the Lehman Brothers Enhanced Libor Fund from Aaa/MR3 to A/MR5. Moody’s said the rating would remain on review for further downgrade, due to its holdings in securities backed by residential mortgages and credit card payments.

After a $200 billion run on money market funds in September, the operations of, and flows to, money market funds are beginning to return to normal, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Bear market fund investors have struck it rich, with the best-performing such fund, the Rydex Inverse Nasdaq 100 Fund, up 107% over the past 12 months, businessworld.com reports. Year-to-date, the fund is up 88.7%, and in the past month alone, 16.6%.

Vanguard has reopened the $1.5 billion Vanguard International Explorer Fund, which closed in 2004, and the $3 billion Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining Fund, which closed in 2004. The minimum required initial investment in the international fund is $25,000, and the minimum initial investment in the metals fund is $10,000.

Adviser confidence in the economy and stock market sank this month for the second consecutive month, according to Rydex AdvisorBenchmarking, a division of Rydex Investments.