Investments

Stock funds started the year with a bang.

Jonathan Baum, the chairman and CEO of Dreyfus, resigned from the firm on Monday, Jan. 21, to pursue other interests, Morningstar reports.

Who better to help kickoff an educational alternatives summit series than Jeffrey Gundlach?

For alternative mutual funds, 2012 was a mixed bag.

Exchange-traded products are on a roll, following up a record year of flows with a major milestone the first month of the new year.

The Investment Company Institute is proposing that prime money market funds impose temporary “gates” and fees to halt redemptions during times of market stress.

Professor John Grable touched a nerve when he suggested in Financial Planning’s current issue that a mandatory AUM tax on advisors could help make financial planning available to all American families. Actually, he touched a lot of nerves.

The Republican chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Dave Camp, R-Mich., released a draft document Thursday proposing a series of tax reforms for various types of financial derivatives and other financial products, building on work done by his committee over the past two years.

Tax-exempt money market funds continued their downward as they reported $2.44 billion of outflows, for the second week in a row of net outflows.

Inflows to municipal bond mutual funds, while still robust, have fallen for a second straight week, to $871 million from funds that report their flows weekly.

Houston-based Salient Partners earlier this month added the Pure Trend Fund, a managed futures offering, to its growing list of alternative mutual funds.

Northern Trust Corporation is expanding its middle office outsourcing service with a brand new position.

BMO Global Asset Management has one more milestone to help establish its presence in the U.S.

Where would a successful trader invest a hypothetical $100,000 windfall? In energy, information technology and utilities, according to Fidelity Investments’ inaugural survey of its top online traders. The survey polled customers who made at least 36 trades over the past 12 months and whose total portfolio performance during this time was at least 20%. …

Janus said fourth-quarter profit declined 13% as clients pulled out money for the 14th consecutive quarter.

President Barack Obama will nominate former US attorney Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing incumbent Chairman Elisse Walter, the New York Post reports.

For alternative mutual funds, 2012 was a mixed bag.

Institutional investors are currently showing more interest in environmental, social, and governance investing, according to new research from Cerulli.

Assets in ETFs and other indexed products will reach $10.4 trillion by 2017, up more than 100% since 2011, a new report from Tiburon Strategic Advisors predicts.

Long-term mutual funds posted inflows of $22.04 billion for the week ended Wednesday, January 16, according to the Investment Company Institute.