Investment funds

MFS Investment Management was founded in 1924 and is one of the oldest asset management companies in the world, operating roughly 60 mutual funds.

San Francisco, Calif.-based consulting shop Callan Associates has hired today Yosangel G. Haddad as vice president, based in Callan’s new location in Summit, New Jersey.

Global X Funds, the New York based provider of exchange traded funds, is changing the index, name, ticker, expense ratio and investment objective of the Global X S&P/TSX Venture 30 Canada ETF (Ticker: TSXV).

On July 9, 2012, AQR Capital Management has added four mutual funds, including AQR U.S. Defensive Equity Fund (Class I/AUEIX), AQR International Defensive Equity Fund (Class I/ANDIX), AQR Emerging Defensive Equity Fund (Class I/AZEIX) and AQR Risk-Balanced Commodities Strategy Fund (Class I/ARCIX), to its portfolio.

Financial services-focused private equity shop Lightyear Capital LLC has appointed Jerry W. Miller, former president and chief executive officer of Van Kampen Investments, as a senior advisor on behalf of its affiliated funds.

Austin, Texas-based Dimensional Fund Advisors has appointed Peng Chen as chief executive officer, Asia (ex-Japan). Chen joined Dimensional on July 1 from, where he served as president of its global investment management division.

Overall, mutual funds and ETFs reported net inflows of $3.2 billion for the week with equity products garnering $10.3 billion—their largest weekly gain since September 14, 2011, according to fund flow data for the week ending July 3, providing by Lipper.

Economist Milton Friedman once famously quipped that price deflation can be fought by "dropping money out of a helicopter."

Calamos-Equity-Value

On July 6, 2012, Overall, mutual funds and ETFs reported net inflows of $3.2 billion for the week with equity products garnering $10.3 billion—their largest weekly gain since September 14, 2011, according to fund flow data for the week ending July 3, providing by Lipper.

On July 9, 2012, Executive Briefs

On July 9, 2012, Fund managers and financial advisors are looking to the cloud to reduce costs, enhance performance, and improve accessibility.

The Board of Trustees of the JPMorgan Asia Equity Fund has approved the liquidation of the fund, effective July 20, according to an SEC filing.

The Board of Trustees of the JPMorgan Asia Equity Fund has approved the liquidation of the fund, effective July 20, according to a Securities and Exchange filing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Norm Champ as director of the agency’s Division of Investment Management, replacing outgoing Eileen Rominger, who is retiring.

Investors' confidence softened somewhat in the second quarter of 2012, according to the John Hancock Investor Sentiment Index.

Total estimated inflows to long-term mutual funds were $3.26 billion for the week ended Wednesday, June 27, according to data from the Investment Company Institute.

Assets in US-listed exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes totaled some $1.18 trillion at the end of June, an increase of 7% over June 2011 month-end, when assets totaled $1.11 trillion, according to data from the ETF Industry Association.

For the week ended June 27, investors pulled an estimated $1.46 billion from mutual funds that invest long-term in U.S. equities, down 21% from the previous week’s $1.85 billion outflow.

Last month, the Board of Trustees of John Hancock Funds II - International Opportunities Fund approved Invesco Advisers, Inc. as the new subadviser effective July 20, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.