Investment funds

At a time when asset managers are increasingly questioning modern portfolio theory and static Morningstar style boxes, the Chicago research giant has announced its new "Analyst Ratings" to augment its 1- to 5-star ratings.

More than $1.2 trillion has been redeemed from equity mutual funds since September 2008, and retail outflows year-to-date through September have surpassed $89 billion—on pace to be greater than all of the money that fled mutual funds in 2008, said Ron O’Hanley, president of asset management and corporate services at Fidelity Investments.

"Investors are running scared, from fear to fear,” said Brad Durham, managing director of EPFR, a global fund tracking firm, during an address at the Fund Forum USA’s Global Fund Distribution Summit.

Nasdaq OMX Group and a unit of Canada’s TMX Group said they are developing a family of capital markets indices based on U.S. Treasury instruments that will be rebalanced daily, instead of monthly.

Russell Investments has launched three international equity “factor” exchange-traded funds designed to provide investors with focused exposure to fundamental risk factors—namely low beta, low volatility and high momentum. The funds complement Russell’s existing 10 domestic factor ETFs.

Putnam Investments has launched the Putnam Short Duration Income Fund, a fixed income fund that aims to combine the capital preservation appeal of a money market fund with the higher yield of an ultra-short bond fund.

S&P Capital IQ mutual fund analyst Todd Rosenbluth highlights three five-star mutual funds for advisors and analysts to keep an eye on this year.

How the big bank stress test strategy could bolster your clients' portfolios against market volatility.

Financial advisors can now purchase T. Rowe Price Advisor Class shares for their clients at no transaction fee on the Schwab Mutual Fund OneSource platform.

Former Wasatch Portfolio Managers Robert Gardiner and Blake Walker, who formed Grandeur Peak Global Advisors, have launched their first two mutual funds: the Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund and the Grandeur Peak International Opportunities Fund.

The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index fell for a second straight month, finishing down 3.2% in September, but beating the Dow Jones Global Index’s 9.88% decline.

Former Wasatch Portfolio Managers Robert Gardiner and Blake Walker, who formed Grandeur Peak Global Advisors, have launched their first two mutual funds: the Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund and the Grandeur Peak International Opportunities Fund.

In light of the continued market volatility, Russell Indexes is expanding its Defensive and Dynamic Indexes to cover all 10,000 stocks that it tracks around the world.

Vanguard has filed with the SEC to offer the Vanguard Target 2060 Retirement Fund for those currently 18 to 20 years old, and early next year will merge the Vanguard Target Retirement 2005 Fund and the Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund, as their allocations have become nearly identical.

Investors pulled $3.93 billion from long-term mutual funds in the week ended Oct. 19, the Investment Company Institute said.

Running its quantitative screens for its annual rebalancing, the Hennessy Focus 30 Fund turned up two sectors that at first puzzled Neil Hennessy, chairman and chief investment officer of Hennessy Funds: energy and utilities.

NEW YORK—Running its quantitative screens for its annual rebalancing, the Hennessy Focus 30 Fund turned up two sectors that at first puzzled Neil Hennessy, chairman and chief investment officer of Hennessy Funds. Energy. And utilities.

State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corporation, has announced changes to the indices and names of five financial industry SPDR ETFs.

Having made changes to the fund’s investment capacity, the $6.6 billion Eaton Vance Macro Absolute Return Fund is reopened to additional investments.

At the start of October, the Investment Company Institute announced it was going global.