Investment products

T. Rowe Price Group Inc., the asset manager that posted a profit every quarter since going public in 1986, reported first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates as institutional clients pulled money.

Janus Capital Group Inc., owner of the Janus, Intech and Perkins funds, said first-quarter earnings rose 24% as stock market gains helped boost assets.

These investors are often plagued by fear and paralyzed by indecision. They have very serious income needs, and traditional vehicles such as CDs, government bonds, and investment grade corporate bonds are not providing returns above inflation-let alone allowing them to meet household expense obligations. So where should they turn?

UBS Global Asset Management (Americas) is liquidating one of its 25 money market funds in June.

The money market fund industry fell victim to seasonal outflows as significant withdrawals by individuals and corporations signaled the arrival of the filing deadline for federal income tax season in the week ended April 15, according to The Money Fund Report.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., introduced a bill Wednesday that would establish a tax on the trading of stocks and other financial products.

Total estimated inflows to long-term mutual funds were $4.83 billion for the week ended Wednesday, April 10, according to the Investment Company Institute.

While some of the asset increase resulted from appreciation since the 2008 financial crisis, other factors contributed to this growth.

BlackRock suggests scaling back on lower-rated municipal debt even as the bonds rally the most in almost five years.

Advisors are busy this week with questions and concerns from clients about gold in free-fall, negative numbers coming out of China, tax-advantaged investments, and more.

BlackRock's first-quarter earnings rose 10% as its exchange-traded equities funds drew client cash and assets increased.

New rules to reduce risk in money-market mutual funds will be proposed in the next two months by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which won’t be slowed by a leadership change, a commissioner said.

Richard Weil, chief executive officer at Janus Capital Group, had his compensation reduced 19% to $4.98 million in 2012 as investors withdrew $12.1 billion from the firm.

Inflows of $57.1 million entered the tax-exempt money market industry in the week ended April 8 and total net assets inched up to $273.12 billion, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Bill Gross raised the holdings of Treasuries held in his $289 billion flagship fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. to 33 percent of assets last month, the highest level since July.

During the week ended April 3, investors withdrew an estimated $1.83 billion from U.S. equity funds, the most they have pulled from the funds in a single week this year.

Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $2.61 billion to $2.631 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, April 3, according to the Investment Company Institute.

The $8.7 billion Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund (VHCOX) is now open to individual investors for the first time since 2004 and its $25,000 annual contribution limit for individual investors has been removed.

Pimco's 13-month-old exchange-traded fund is attracting more cash than the firm’s flagship Total Return mutual fund as investors join Bill Gross in preferring ETFs for bond investing.

When looking to spread the word about mutual funds and other investment strategies to Generation Y Investors, financial services firms should consider new media, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based consulting firm Cogent Research.