Investments

The holiday week slowed the tax-exempt market down to a crawl, but investors still invested in municipal bond mutual funds. Those funds that report their flows weekly saw $317 million of inflows for the week ended July 4.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 47.15 points Thursday to end at 12,896.67 while the S&P 500 shed 6.44 points to finish at 1,367.58.

Investors threw $105 billion into exchange-traded products in the first half of 2012, giving the global ETP industry its largest-ever first-half-year inflow.

The Board of Trustees of the JPMorgan Asia Equity Fund has approved the liquidation of the fund, effective July 20, according to a Securities and Exchange filing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Norm Champ as director of the agency’s Division of Investment Management, replacing outgoing Eileen Rominger, who is retiring.

Investors' confidence softened somewhat in the second quarter of 2012, according to the John Hancock Investor Sentiment Index.

Total estimated inflows to long-term mutual funds were $3.26 billion for the week ended Wednesday, June 27, according to data from the Investment Company Institute.

Assets in US-listed exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes totaled some $1.18 trillion at the end of June, an increase of 7% over June 2011 month-end, when assets totaled $1.11 trillion, according to data from the ETF Industry Association.

For the week ended June 27, investors pulled an estimated $1.46 billion from mutual funds that invest long-term in U.S. equities, down 21% from the previous week’s $1.85 billion outflow.

Last month, the Board of Trustees of John Hancock Funds II - International Opportunities Fund approved Invesco Advisers, Inc. as the new subadviser effective July 20, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

William Blair & Co. has turned off the spigot on the William Blair International Growth Fund and Institutional International Growth Fund, effective June 30.

When it comes to sector exchange-traded funds, know what you're buying.

Laurence D. Fink used at least half a dozen acquisitions to expand BlackRock Inc. from a boutique bond shop to the world’s biggest money manager. Now the firm, which invests $3.7 trillion for clients around the world, faces a new challenge: Growing on its own.

The biggest June rally for global stocks since 1999 is handing equity investors the year’s top returns, beating the dollar, bonds and commodities.

When it comes to sector exchange-traded funds, know what you're buying.

Investors poured $12.84 billion into exchange-traded funds and notes during the month of June, bringing total half-year inflows to $75.91 billion, up 31% from a year ago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied up 72.43 points in abbreviated holiday trading Tuesday to close at 12,943.82 while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 gained 24.85 points and 5.30 points, respectively.

William Blair & Company has turned off the spigot on the William Blair International Growth Fund and Institutional International Growth Fund, effective June 30.

On July 3, 2012, Last month, the Board of Trustees of John Hancock Funds II - International Opportunities Fund approved Invesco Advisers, Inc. as the new subadviser effective July 20, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

On July 3, 2012, Boston-based MFS Investment Management is looking to beef up its internal sales team in light of its recent rebranding efforts, according to Jim Jessee, president at MFS Fund Distributors, Inc., the distribution arm of the firm’s U.S. fund business.