Investments

There is a new sheriff in town for the mutual fund industry-and he may need to borrow money for bullets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average stormed up 204 points Friday to close at 12,777.09 while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 rallied up 42.28 points and 22.02 points, respectively.

It may seem completely crazy to compare the use of social media with sexual harassment.

On a three to two vote, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the nation's exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority with developing and maintaining a consolidated and auditable trail of every order, cancellation, modification and executed trade on 13 national stock exchanges, 10 options markets and through more than 200 broker-dealers.

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Morningstar decided to put its stamp of approval, and disapproval, on alternative mutual funds. And by all measures, it should.

On July 13, 2012, Oppenheimer & Co. disclosed Wednesday that it named one of its own to assume duties as New York’s institutional sales head.

On July 13, 2012, John Hancock Funds has named Andrew G. Arnott as president and chief executive officer, succeeding Keith F. Hartstein, who is retiring.

Franklin Resources has named Norm Boersma as chief investment officer of Templeton Global Equity Group, replacing Gary Motyl, who passed away last month, reports Morningstar.

ON July 13, 2012, Boston-based Fred Alger Management is reopening the Alger Small Cap Growth (ALSAX) and Alger Small Cap Growth Institutional (ALSRX) to new investors starting Aug. 1, according to a filing.

On July 13, 2012, MFS Investment Management has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a pair of mutual funds in September.

In a stunning reversal of recent patterns, tax-exempt money market funds amassed $4.64 billion of new cash as total net assets soared to $274.7 billion in the week ended July 9.

The market continued to show its confidence in municipal bond mutual funds with strong inflows following a holiday week of relative inactivity.

As Congress and the White House head toward another battle over extending the Bush-era tax cuts, a trade association representing utility companies is warning that investors could be in for a major hit if the rates for qualified dividends revert to their pre-2003 levels, even if the only rates that move are those for the wealthiest Americans.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.26 points Thursday to close at 12,573.27 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended off 6.69 points and 21.79 points, respectively.

On July 12, 2012, DoubleLine Capital LP’s $28 billion Total Return Bond Fund has experienced the most inflows among U.S. mutual funds this year through June, Bloomberg reports, citing data from Morningstar.

The Board of Trustees of the Newgate Global Resources Fund has decided to liquidate the fund, effective as of July 31, according to a Securities and Exchange filing.

Ernst & Young LLP has appointed Julie Canty and Carlos A. Schmidt as partners in the firm’s Asset Management Tax practice.

JPMorgan, under Americas equity research head Noelle Grainger, scored the largest number of highly ranked analysts, making it the No. 1 firm in U.S. equities research. Bank of America was No. 2, followed by Morgan Stanley.

Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc. has launched the Laudus Mondrian Global Fixed Income Fund (LMGDX) to bet on developed, U.S., and emerging market bond markets.

Domestic ETF assets totaled $1.16 trillion as of June 30 – up 11.3% year-to-date, according to State Street Global Advisors’ ETF Snapshot.