Investment products

Research Affiliates sees high inflation, low growth in the developed world. BlackRock looks for companies with strong cash flow. Gold prices rise.

Canada’s securities commissions have proposed to require transaction data on over-the-counter derivatives to be reported to trade repositories.

The world’s top foreign exchange dealers are working on an industry-wide initiative to reduce the risk of “flash-crash” hitting the global currency markets.

In the last proxy season, the 35 most prominent shareholder activists, who together manage more than $500 billion in assets, filed resolutions with nine oil and gas companies pressing them to disclose their plans for managing the risks of gas hydraulic fracturing -- or “fracking”-- which is increasingly common.

While the zero or near-zero interest-rate policies of central banks around the developed world are continuing, trading of active cash treasuries and their corresponding futures products remains active and interest rate futures markets both in the U.S. and Europe continue to grow and to add new products and new competition.

In the wake of the financial crisis that brought some of Wall Street's biggest firms to their knees and sparked a wave of sweeping regulatory changes, a new report from The Conference Board shows that companies are no longer hesitant to dismiss CEOs for cause.

It’s often noted that a company’s stock gets a bump in value when the company is voted into the Standard & Poor's 500 index, because index fund managers have to buy it. And if a company gets booted out, the same managers must sell.

ING’s U.S. retirement division is attempting to pursue the small- and mid-sized defined contribution business through the banking channel and with a convenience payroll strategy.

Sure, the economy is looking weaker these days, but fears about a double-dip recession are “overblown,” according to researchers at the money management firm Lord Abbett.

Emerging Global Advisors, the sub-advisor to the EGShares family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this week launched a suite of sector-specific, emerging markets ETFs.

I guess if you wait long enough, everything that once was will come back to us again. Even the bad stuff.

Global long-term fund flows through April reached $270 billion, according to Strategic Insight’s “Global Mutual Fund Review April 2011, New & Top Selling Funds, Leading Managers.”

Fidelity Investments on Wednesday announced the launch of four Fidelity Defined Maturity Funds, a series of four actively managed municipal income funds. The funds seek to bridge the gap between individual bonds and bond funds and, therefore, fill a gap in municipal bond investing, Fidelity said.

Conventional wisdom these days suggest that the U.S. dollar remains a safe haven for investors compared to the euro, which is under considerable pressure due to the growing debt crisis facing Greece and a few other European countries. But at least one analyst contends investors shouldn't be so quick to assume these macroeconomic developments are necessarily good for the U.S. dollar.

Morgan Keegan & Co. agreed to a $200 million settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and five state securities regulators that resolves a civil case brought against the firm last year accusing top executives of defrauding investors by artificially inflating the value of mortgage-backed securities in several of its mortgage bond funds.

Treating employees well is savvy management, according to “socially-responsible” investors such as Jerome Dodson, founder of the Parnassus Workplace Fund. And for several years, the independent research firm, Russell Investments, has reported that the benefits of happy employees may actually show up in better stock returns.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC will pay $153.6 million to settle charges that it misled investors in a complex mortgage securities transaction just as the housing market was starting to plummet, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

DTCC Insurance & Retirement Services has launched a new analytic reporting service for insurance carriers and broker-dealers that sell annuities.

In bull markets, many investors may overlook the importance of dividends. But when markets become more tentative or start to slump, dividends can look a lot more attractive and one S&P analyst found some international funds investors should be watching.

Invesco PowerShares Capital Management this week introduced a “suite” of nine new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) which it is calls Fundamental Pure Style ETFs, based upon the Research Affiliates Fundamental Index (RAFI).