Investments

Tax-exempt money market funds lost $1.70 billion and total net assets declined to $268.31 billion in the week ended Sept. 3 -- the second consecutive week of significant losses, according to The Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Flows into municipal bond mutual funds remained positive. Barely. Those funds that report their flows weekly saw $260 million of inflows for the week ended Sept. 5.

Crisis may be the new normal for investors, but it's also the stark reality of the communications landscape.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled an administrative proceeding against two Portland, Oregon-based investment advisory firms regarding their failure to disclose a revenue-sharing agreement and other potential conflicts of interest to clients.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average stormed up 244.52 points Thursday to close at 13,292.00 while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 surged up 66.54 points and 28.68 points, respectively.

Forward has expanded its institutional and intermediary sales forces with a slew of new hires.

RiverNorth Capital Management today filed a registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a new mutual fund—the RiverNorth/Oaktree High Income Fund.

The $5.5 billion Franklin Templeton Founding Funds Allocation last week got a Negative rating from research shop Morningstar.

Indexed annuity sales increased 8.3% and income annuities were up 6.1% in the second quarter, according to Beacon Research. It was the second-best quarter ever for those product types, Beacon said in a press release. Total fixed annuity sales were also up, but with a more muted 1% gain in the quarter. And they declined 17.2% from the year-ago period. …

Global assets invested in exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products reached a record $1.76 trillion through the end of August 2012.

Global assets invested in exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products eclipsed the $1.7 trillion threshold in August - an all-time high.

As investing in alternatives such as real estate, private equity funds, hedge fund strategies and commodities grow in popularity, the way these are being used by institutions and investment advisors is changing.

Can it possibly be? Technology stocks are paying the most dividends?

In a nod to the competitive pricing pressure roiling the financial services industry, Advisor Group, one of the largest independent broker-dealer networks in the nation, has eliminated, or drastically reduced, the mutual fund fees it was charging to clients of its financial advisors.

The pullout from domestic stock funds continued last week, to the tune of $3.7 billion. But bond funds got another big influx.

Pimco's Gross says investors face an "age of inflation, which typically provides a headwind, not a tailwind, to securities prices -- both stocks and bonds."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 11.54 points Wednesday to finish at 13,047.48 while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell 5.79 points and 1.50 points, respectively.

The pullout from domestic stock funds continued last week, to the tune of $3.7 billion. But bond funds got another big influx.

Keith Bernard, former Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, at Pax World Management, has left the firm, Money Management Executive has learned.

Edward P. Owens, whose $22.4 billion Vanguard Health Care Fund has outperformed every U.S. equity mutual fund since it was created in 1984, will retire at the end of the year.