Fund performance

The nearly $80 billion that was pulled from money market funds in April was the highest monthly total in 16 years.

Direxion Funds of New York and Boston hopes to break new ground for itself as well as the leveraged ETF marketplace.

WASHINGTON - Exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been growing by leaps and bounds lately, but you ain't seen nothin' yet, said a panel of executives involved in creating and distributing ETFs, speaking at the Investment Company Institute's general membership meeting here two weeks ago.

The mood at the Investment Company Institute's 50th Annual General Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, themed "Our Foundations, Our Future," was markedly upbeat. Certainly, this is welcome and refreshing, especially following the dot-com crash of 2000-2001, the mutual fund scandals of 2003-2005 and this year's subprime credit crisis hitting the financial services industry and Wall Street, in particular, so hard.

WASHINGTON - The general consensus among financial experts is that target-date funds are better suited for the majority of 401(k) investors than money market funds. Only problem is, the passive participant seems to have little interest in making changes to their plan, especially if they were automatically enrolled into it.

Until recently, getting a guaranteed income in retirement meant buying an annuity.

AXA Distributors, LLC has appointed Joanne Pietrini-Smith as chief operating officer of AXA Partners, its life insurance business.

U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management has announced four appointments in Boston, in the latest of nearly 20 additions to the New England area in the last nine months.

A lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that more than 30 firms spent in excess of $3 million over the course of three years to lure the business of Boston mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments.

Including lift-outs and partial deals, investment firms have shelled out more than $50 billion so far this year to acquire mutual fund companies and other asset management firms, in a record 241 deals this year, according to Jefferies Putnam Lovell, a division of Jefferies.

Financial Research Corp., a primary go-to source when it comes to mutual fund sales figures by firm, will no longer publish the data, according to today's Wall Street Journal.

Four years ago, the board of directors of the Gabelli Funds conducted a thorough investigation into charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that market timing had occurred in its funds, according to a press release the invesment manager issued on behalf of one of its former principals who is now under investigation.

The CGM Mutual Fund may be nearly 80 years old, but it’s acting like a fund half its age, writes the Motley Fool.

NEW YORK - Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson says the bank plans to cut one third of its fixed-income staff and make a 10% reduction in corporate and investment bank support staff.

Dow Jones Financial Information Services has announced the launch of Private Equity Source, a database for tracking buyout and growth transactions in the U.S. and Europe.

Ubiquitous market commentator Jim “Mad Money” Cramer of TheStreet.com observes in a Rocky Mountain News column this morning how irrationally the market is behaving of late, in light of rumblings of the bear market and a pronounced recession.

As the stock market continues to close as high as 300 points higher or lower in recent weeks, mutual fund portfolio managers are increasingly hoarding cash or liquid cash-equivalent investments. Even bellwether Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffet has 13% of his portfolio in cash.

Looking at the current economic landscape, we know the challenges our industry faces today may be like storms we have weathered in the past. Challenges often become catalysts for important changes in regulation, technology and business practices.

NEW YORK - Cautious investors will be watching 130/30 funds over the next few years to see how the new products perform.

WASHINGTON - The mutual fund industry will need to overhaul its online service and security capabilities as U.S. investors increasingly turn to the Internet, instant messaging and other mobile devices to manage their personal finances, investment decisions and transactions.