Investment funds

Chicago-based NextCapital announced a $16 million funding deal in mid-December that includes support from Manulife and AllianceBernstein. It had already found investors in 2014 from Russell Investments and Transamerica Ventures Fund.

Munis produced a 5.8% risk-adjusted return in 2014, more than double the other investments. They also outperformed in 2011 and 2012 as yields -- which move in the opposite direction as price -- fell to the lowest since the 1960s.

A renewed appetite for Irish equities adds another leg to Ireland’s renaissance among international investors, seven years after the financial crash sent them running for the exit.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index, a measure of returns for 22 components, slumped about 25 % in 2015. The gauge is headed for a fifth annual loss, the longest streak since the data begins in 1991.

Pimco’s high-yield municipal-bond mutual fund is jockeying for the top returns of 2015 after picking winners among pockets of distress.

Vineer Bhansali is leaving Pimco, where he was a managing director specializing in quantitative portfolios, to start his own investment firm.

As the MSCI Emerging Markets Index heads for its third straight annual decline, 34 of 65 U.S. funds that track the benchmark had beaten it through last week.

Avenue Credit Strategies Fund, a high-yield fund run by Marc Lasry’s Avenue Capital Management, put about 45% of its portfolio into cash earlier this week.

State Street said it incorrectly invoiced at least $200 million in asset servicing expenses to clients over a period of 18 years and will compensate customers.

BlackRock’s $114 billion alternatives business, which also includes private equity, infrastructure and funds of hedge funds, is among its most lucrative.

Looking ahead to 2016, executives are focused on responding to regulatory demands, technological changes and managing market challenges.

The $358 million Northeast fund dropped 8.8% in the month through Dec. 14, more than any U.S.-based high-yield credit fund with at least $100 million.

If you want to know where others are investing, click through to see the mutual funds that have added the most money from investors so far in 2015.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council was characterized as an enigmatic interagency body that has not provided enough rationale for designating certain financial firms as a threat to the economy.

Scott Minerd, global chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners, predicts 10% to 15% of junk bond funds may face high withdrawals as more investors worry about getting their money back.

As signs of stress mount in credit markets, a $788 million mutual fund is blocking clients from pulling their money so its holdings can be liquidated in an orderly fashion.

The burden is on money managers to demonstrate their value by finding "sweet spots" that increase returns and manage risks if they want to maintain record profits and compete with increasingly sophisticated passive investments, according to a new study from McKinsey.

"ETFs are just a better mousetrap than a mutual fund,” Kapito said Tuesday at an investment conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs.

Investors resumed redemptions from Bill Gross's Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund in November, taking out about $74 million, the largest monthly outflow since the erstwhile bond king took over the fund last year.

Stock demand is rising after the S&P 500 recovered from its first correction in four years, returning to a range that has confined stocks for most of this year.