Investments

With yield and risk investors' two biggest concerns today, Nuveen Investments has launched a microsite focusing exclusively on income (http://www.nuveen.com/income/default.aspx).

Drum roll, please.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 49 points to close at 12,422.06 Friday as investors reacted to news that S&P will downgrade both France and Austria’s credit rating and is mulling the same for other eurozone countries.

Investors worldwide pulled $171 billion out of mutual funds in the third quarter of 2011, according to statistics released late Thursday by the Investment Company Institute.

Investors worldwide pulled $171 billion out of mutual funds in the third quarter of 2011, according to statistics released late Thursday by the Investment Company Institute.

The number of listed exchange-traded funds grew 20.6% in 2011 and the number of listed exchange-traded notes grew 53.8%, according to U.S. figures developed by the Exchange-Traded Fund Association.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average picked up 21.57 points to close at 12,471.02 while the Nasdaq recorded its sixth consecutive winning session, gaining 14 points to finish at 2,724.70.

Speculation about widespread municipal credit defaults and bankruptcies sent them running from the tax-exempt market early in the year. Now as 2012 gets under way, mom-and-pop investors are back and looking to glean some of the performance that made the sector shine in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Bank holding companies earned a record $2.26 billion from the sale of annuities in the first three quarters of 2011, up from $1.84 billion, or 22.6%, from the year-ago period.

The world's largest asset management firm will be the first company to list securities on a BATS Global Markets electronic venue that now competes for listings on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market.

The world's largest asset management firm will be the first company to list securities on a BATS Global Markets electronic venue that now competes for listings on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average trimmed 13 points to finish at 12,449.45 while tech stocks continued their recent resurgence on the heels of a pair of encouraging economic reports.

The Internal Revenue Service’s initiative to determine whether municipal bonds are being initially offered at prices that fail to comply with tax requirements has left issuers upset and confused about the definition of issue price and what specific abuses the IRS is looking for.

With performance under par, hedge fund managers got smaller year-end bonuses for 2011, according to the Hedge Fund Compensation Report.

Drum roll, please.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 70 points to 12,462.47 Tuesday, the fourth positive session in six trading days so far this year. Tech stocks also perked up as the Nasdaq rallied up 26 points to finish at 2,702.50.

NYSE Euronext said it had not been notified by the European Commission of any “official decision” on its merger with Deutsche Boerse, after a pair of media reports that the nearly year-old deal will not be approved on anti-competition grounds.

With performance under par, hedge fund managers got smaller year-end bonuses for 2011, according to the Hedge Fund Compensation Report, released Tuesday.

When it comes to bond funds — or any mutual funds — past performance is not the best way to analyze them. Instead, S&P Capital IQ Analyst Todd Rosenbluth suggests investors should consider the credit risk of the underlying bonds, as well as a fund’s duration, i.e. price sensitivity to changes in interest rates.

The fund invests at least 80% of the value of its net assets in a diverse equity portfolio, with a focus on larger companies with market capitalizations equal to or more than $1 billion.