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Jefferies Group named Thomas Fetzer as the new managing director of its global industrials group where he'll be responsible for coverage of capital goods clients across German and throughout Central Europe.

It is ironic that Standard & Poor’s, one of the three major credit rating agencies at the heart of the financial crisis, would downgrade the United States’ credit rating from triple-A to AA+. After all, S&P should have properly assessed the asset-backed housing securities that led to the Great Recession not as investment-grade but what they actually were. Junk.

As trading opens on another nervous week on Wall Street, mainstream investors are casting their votes on prospects by racing out of mutual funds that invest in stocks long-term.

After a week that started with a broad-based equities free fall -- only to be interrupted by massive gains and then equally gigantic losses in successive trading days -- ended on an upbeat note with the Dow Jones Industrial average adding 125 points, or 1.1%, to close at 11,269.02.

Investors are rushing out of equities as markets grow increasingly volatile, but maybe there’s another alternative to just sitting on the sidelines and leaving stocks to the big institutional investors.

Charles Schwab grew its total client assets under management to more than $1.65 trillion, bringing in a total of $9.9 billion in net new assets in July alone.

During the first trading session after Standard & Poor’s downgraded its rating of U.S. debt from AAA to AA+, investors got out of stocks and parked their money in...U.S. Treasury bonds.

Investors are spooked by the increasing volatility of U.S equities markets and in July pulled out nearly $23 billion, an amount of money that is starting to approach the panicky pullback seen in the October 2008 when investors withdrew $27.9 billion from the market.

Traders and operations executives won’t be the only ones affected by Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. government debt and the European sovereign debt crisis. So could plan sponsors which have lent out their securities and received either cash or fixed-income securities as collateral.

The Securities and Exchange Commission hit Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and one of its former executives with fraud charges on Wednesday, alleging that they sold $200 million in investments to five Wisconsin school districts without properly representing their risks.

One day after rallying up more than 400 points, the Dow Jones Industrial average was pummeled again Wednesday, shedding 519 points, or more than 4% of its total value, as investors unloaded shares across the board.

Chief financial officers in the U.S. and Europe are largely optimistic about sales and earnings for their individual companies through the rest of the year, but rising commodity prices and extreme volatility in the equities markets has most convinced inflation is on the rise and will likely hinder any substantial recovery in the overall economy.

Investors desperately seeking diversification amid all the volatility in stocks both in the U.S. and abroad found some salvation in commodities last month as 15 of 19 constituents in the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index gained ground.

World cotton production in 2011 is now expected to exceed more than 27 million tons, according RISI, resulting in lower prices in the dissolving pulp market.

Market volatility and an uneven path for the economic recovery are set to continue for years, according to Towers Watson. What’s more, all asset classes will face higher-than-average volatility, Towers Watson said.

As a new market reality sets in, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is urging investors not to make rash moves with their current investments, and to also consider asset classes poised to profit in current conditions.

Uncertainty and fear are driving affluent investors into cash at record levels, according to the MFS Investing Sentiment Survey. While investors of all ages are moving into cash, they are being led by Generation Y.

The opening morning of focus11, LPL Financial's national conference, got off to a rocky start Monday as the market took an immediate downturn with news of the Standard and Poor’s downgrade. LPL’s regular research morning call was scheduled onsite, which was perfect, as the advisors got to hear firsthand what LPL’s take was.

With its eye on the small and midsized defined contribution markets, BlackRock, Inc., has broadened its lineup of index mutual funds for defined contribution plans.

Maybe the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. sovereign debt rating is roiling markets and causing China to double down on efforts to diversify its massive cash hoard away from U.S. dollar holdings, but last week's resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis has been good news for the money market fund industry.