Investments

For some companies, there was a lot to love about February. Here’s an interactive slide show highlighting the 5 best-performing Dow component stocks for February 2012.

Bill Gross and his team of bond specialists at Pacific Investment Management Company built the Total Return Fund into the world’s largest mutual fund, with more than a quarter-billion dollars in assets. Can he (and they) repeat the trick, with a Total Return exchange-traded fund?

We applaud diversifying into different asset classes, but memories of recent losses are keeping too many people out of the equity markets.

Stocks are beating bonds, small caps are outperforming large caps and high beta is leading low beta.

Even better, REITs may be on an acquisition streak this year

It's often more beneficial in the wealth creation process to go against the grain and do what is uncomfortable

State Street Global Advisors has launched two equity exchange-traded funds designed to track MSCI Global Equity Indices, with one focusing on emerging markets and the other widely covering both developed and developing countries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 53 points to close at 12,952.07 Wednesday while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 shed 20 points and 6.50 points, respectively, in the final trading day of the month.

After a strong start in February, domestic stock mutual funds saw cash outflows of $322 million in the most recent weekly statistics.

Fidelity Investments has launched an initiative dubbed “Thinking Big,” for publicly promoting the research of its investment analysts and experts. The firm will launch the initiative in conjunction with its sponsorship of the 2012 TED conference, an annual event that brings together global thought leaders.

State Street Global Advisors has launched two equity exchange-traded funds designed to track MSCI Global Equity Indices, with one focusing on emerging markets and the other widely covering both developed and developing countries.

After a strong start in February, domestic stock mutual funds saw cash outflows of $322 million in the most recent weekly statistics.

Larry Fink wants the asset management industry and government to take the lead in propping up investors’ morale in a flagging market.

Here’s an interactive slide show detailing the best investment ideas for this election year from seven financial advisors practicing throughout the country.

Investors have not yet fully recovered their faith in long-term U.S. mutual funds, but the cash outflow in January was not nearly as bad as the previous month.

This is the week that actively managed exchange-traded funds get their biggest booster shot since they first arrived, less than five years ago.

Hungry for healthier returns, more mutual funds are investing in commodities, commodity futures, swaps and options.

Institutional investors continued the pattern established late in 2011 of reducing allocations to equities, according to results of the State Street Investor Confidence Index for February 2012.

Mutual fund firms such as Vanguard and Fidelity Investments are finding themselves at the top of the Kasina Social Media Index.

NYSE Euronext said its annual report to the SEC that it incurred $85 million of legal, banking and other expenses in 2011 from its unsuccessful plan to merge with Deutsche Boerse.