Investments

An estimated $9.2 billion flowed out of long-term mutual funds for the week ending Wednesday, Nov. 30, according to the latest statistics by the Investment Company Institute, a trade association for U.S. investment companies.

The Hartford will hire up to 50 in its mutual fund sales distribution unit, in a push to beef up this division.

U.S. Bancorp has launched a new exchange-traded funds service, ETF-Fusion, which helps existing or start-up ETFs with product development, administration and trade support, proprietary technology and regulation and compliance.

Investors dumped shares in late trading Thursday on reports that German officials rejected some of the EU summit draft measures intended to help extricate some Eurozone nations from their daunting sovereign debt issues.

Markit, a specialist in valuations and post-trade processing for swaps and other non-exchange traded products, has launched a service to help US mutual funds and other institutional investors find a fair value for their bonds.

LPL Financial said it has added more than 500 net new advisors this year, bringing it close to 13,000. The additions came as the company prepared hikes in the fees it charges them.

As equity funds across different regions, capitalizations and investment styles plummeted between -15% and -26% in the third quarter, publicly traded asset managers were hit with an average 8.9% decline in fee-earning assets under management, Moody’s said Thursday. U.S. small-cap stock and emerging markets indices suffered the sharpest losses.

In 2012, the U.S. life and annuity insurance industry will be challenged to find ways to manage both capital and risk in an economically and politically uncertain year, while continuing to lay the groundwork for future growth, according to Ernst & Young's new Global Insurance Center U.S. Outlook report.

The Dow Jones Industrial average moved up 46 points to close at 12,196.37 Wednesday while the S&P 500 added 2.54 points to finish at 1,261.01.

The coming year will pose new questions about how to handle debt internationally and shape up as a new test for the U.S., in what will likely lead to a low-growth environment for investors.

Since 1977, the Gateway Fund has tried to shield investors from the bear market's bite. Here's how.

Equity-income funds provide a buffer against extreme market volatility.

To see if mortgage REITs might be right for your clients, analyze these companies like the levered bond funds they really are.

NYSE Euronext said its trading in futures and options was up slightly in November. But stock trading in the United States was down 10% from a year ago.

Lots of attention has been paid this year to the fact that investors are yanking billions after billions out of mutual funds that invest long-term in domestic stocks.

Stocks moved higher Tuesday on a report that European leaders are considering a second bailout fund to supplement the one they have already agreed to in the hopes of stabilizing markets in the Eurozone and bringing some sense of calm to international markets.

Stock indices used to be employed as a benchmark that active managers of investment funds tried to exceed. Now, active management strategies are being turned into indices, causing confusion at the Super Bowl of Indexing. Should a distinction be made?

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Congress can’t agree on how to cut the nation’s $1.2 trillion deficit, which is now more than 140% of the nation's gross annual economic output.

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Richard A. Ferri, the founder of Portfolio Solutions, spent much of his first day at the Super Bowl of Indexing here trying to collect names.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation says it has enhanced its cost basis reporting service to help mutual fund managers and other financial intermediaries transfer cost basis information on investors’ accounts from one firm to another.