Investment funds

Charles Schwab is attracting a slew of new assets, and daily average trades are rising. New and established clients brought the company $6 billion of net new assets in January, according to its monthly market activity report. Total client assets rose 27% from a year earlier, to $1.401 trillion, but were down 2% from December because of difficult market conditions.

Tom O’Halloran, manager of the Lord Abbett Developing Growth Fund, a small-cap fund that has increased 43% over the past year and 5.5% over the past decade—putting it in the top 3% of its peers, believes technology stocks will lead a continued market rebound.

JPMorgan’s five-year plan to boost its mutual fund business appears to be paying off, with the company attracting $26 billion in 2008, making it the third best-selling fund family for the year, excluding money market funds, behind Vanguard and PIMCO. In 2004, investors redeemed $1.6 billion from JPMorgan funds. Still, however, with $91 billion in assets under management, however, JPMorgan is now the 14th-largest fund company in the nation.

Average 401(k) balances ended 2009 at $64,200, rising 28% for the year and 5.7% in the fourth quarter, Fidelity reported Wednesday, citing the activity of its 11 million participants in more than 17,000 defined contribution plans.

To enable portfolio managers of its target-date funds to respond more nimbly to extreme market volatility, starting in April, AllianceBernstein will allow these funds to move up to 20% of their assets from equities and real estate investment trusts into bonds and cash.

Fidelity Investments may possess the largest supermarket of mutual funds, $3.2 trillion of assets under administration and $1.5 trillion under management.

Seventy-eight percent of advisers increased the number and duration of client contacts in 2009 to regain their trust after the very difficult year before, and while that has distracted many from business strategies, 68% of advisers are confident about their practices in the coming year. This is according to a survey of 1,804 advisers and 150 broker/dealers that Curian Capital conducted via Zoomerang.

Invesco has launched a defined contribution website at invesco.com/dc aimed at plan sponsors, consultants, recordkeepers and advisers. It will include information as well as brochures, calculators, whitepapers and videos.

U.S. stock mutual funds received $2.7 billion in inflows in January, reversing four consecutive months of outflows. “I think investors are growing more comfortable coming back into the stock market after 2009’s rally,” Morningstar Senior Fund Analyst Sonya Morris told The Wall Street Journal. “They’re beginning to show signs of shaking off some of the fear that was induced from 2008’s downturn.”

SEC to Propose New Target-Date Fund Rule

RR Donnelley has added another mobile application to its suite for mutual fund and annuity companies, broker/dealers and financial advisers, the iCOMPLi iPhone app that makes it possible to send a SEC-compliant prospectus, summary prospectus or statement of additional information to an investor.

Old Mutual Global Index Trackers has launched the GlobalShares FTSE Developed Countries ex-U.S. Fund, an exchange-traded fund trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Charles Schwab has selected State Street Corp. to support its eight new exchange-traded funds with custody, fund accounting, fund administration and transfer agency services. Sin e2005, State Street has provided Schwab with custody, fund accounting, fund administration and securities lending services.

T. Rowe Price has launched the Global Infrastructure Fund, a long-term growth fund that will invest in infrastructure-related companies around the world, including the U.S. It is available as a no-load mutual fund or through adviser class shares.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. reported fourth-quarter net income of $557 million, or $1.19 per share, compared with a loss of $806 million, or $2.71 per share, a year earlier. For the full year, the Connecticut company posted a loss of $887 million, compared with a $2.7 billion loss in 2008.

Bruce Berkowitz isn't the kind of manager whose moves make headlines, but they've paid off remarkably well for his investors.

Prudential Financial reported 2009 year-end earnings of $3.411 billion, or $7.63 per common share, a sharp improvement from the $1.14 billion loss, or $2.53 per common share, in 2008.

ProFunds Group has launched eight exchange-traded funds that are three times long or three times short five of the most traded broad U.S. market indexes: the Nasdaq 100, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P MidCap 400 and Russell 2000. Last year, ProShares Advisors, advisor to the funds, launched plus and minus 3x exposure to the S&P 500.

Commodities, particularly precious metals funds, have been big sellers in recent months, but their good fortune reversed in January, when seven of the worst-performing mutual funds turned out to be concentrated on mining stocks.

Investors poured money into long-term mutual funds for the 47th straight week, taking in $7.07 billion in the week ended Feb. 3, the Investment Company Institute said. Sales in the period, now nearing a year, now total $470 billion.