Investments

Fidelity Investments Institutional Services has been rebranded as Fidelity Financial Advisor Solutions. Lynne A. Goldman, its senior vice president for investment product management and development, talked with MME about how the business helps advisers help investors.

Affiliated Managers Group reports that for the fourth quarter of 2011, Economic earnings per share were $1.76, compared to $2.02 for the same period of 2010, while diluted earnings per share for Q4 of 2011 were $0.77, compared to $1.18 for the same period of 2010.

As voters in Florida head to the polls Tuesday to decide who will take on President Obama in November, you can bet many will be have another kind of change in mind. On average, the S&P 500 has improved 14% in the fourth year of a Democratic administration. But this year could be much different, based on statistics so far for the Obama term.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied back from a triple-digit deficit in late trading Monday but still closed off 6.74 points to finish at 12,653.72. Nagging Eurozone worries and disappointing consumer spending figures for December were largely to blame.

Invesco's director of investment product management says the market’s worst days are just as important as its best days, rebutting the belief that missing the market’s best days is the worst mistake an investor or an advisor could make.

The assets of the nation’s mutual funds were flat in December, gaining $12.3 billion. That worked out to a gain of one-tenth of a percent, for an industry that has $11.6 trillion in combined assets.

Hancock Holding Company announced that the Hancock Horizon Burkenroad Small Cap Fund, that uses investment research produced by university students, has received a five-star overall rating from Morningstar.

U.S. Retirement Market Projected to Hit $22 Trillion by 2016 The U.S. retirement market is projected to grow to nearly $22 trillion by 2016. That represents a 38% increase from an estimated $16 trillion mark for the end of 2011, due mostly to continuing market recovery.

Direxion Funds said it is is making modifications to its line of “buy and hold” alternative strategies, effective February 1, 2012.

Hancock Holding Company announced that the Hancock Horizon Burkenroad Small Cap Fund, celebrating its tenth anniversary, has received a five-star overall rating from Morningstar.

The number and complexity of corporate events persist, even three years after the 2008 financial crisis. Here's a rundown, from Wolters Kluwers Financial Services.

Here's a an early preview of Financial Planning’s February cover story examining the savviest strategies that top planners and other financial professionals are using to put the fix back into their clients’ fixed income.

Senior White House economic advisors have told state and local officials that tax-exempt bond interest is “off the table” and will not be part of the administration’s proposed 28% cap on the value of exclusions, deductions and other tax preferences for wealthy taxpayers, sources familiar with the discussions told The Bond Buyer.

Invesco reports total net inflows of $6 billion in its latest quarter.

T. Rowe Price Group reported its fourth quarter 2011 results, including net revenues of $671.6 million, net income of $188.4 million, and diluted earnings per common share of $0.73.

Custom target-date funds are beginning to proliferate at the expense of their off-the-shelf counterparts. That’s due to plan sponsors wanting to have greater control over what’s in a fund and have access to a wider array of investments to put in them.

The former UBS trader accused of unauthorized deals that cost the Swiss bank $2.3 billion pleaded not guilty to four fraud and false accounting charges in a London court.

Fidelity Investments last week did something last week that a decade ago likely was not imaginable – or feasible. The company best known for popularizing the no-load mutual fund said that, for the first time, it would allow retail investors to trade directly in foreign markets – and in foreign currencies.

$10 billion of equities change hands each day in the United States. $4 trillion of currency changes hands each day, globally. Which asset do you want to trade in?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 74.17 points Friday to close at 12,660.46 while the Nasdaq managed to post a modest gain of 11.27 points to finish at 2,816.55.