Investments

Governments are falling, bond yields are zigzagging by whole percentage points and markets around the world are locking up. The eurozone turmoil risks turning into a global crisis.

"Emerging markets are just a niche asset class" persistently remains as one of the five biggest myths about investing in emerging markets, said John Flint, chief executive officer of HSBC Global Asset Management.

Direct Edge plans to launch an all-electronic platform for the trading of Brazilian equities. The exchange will be headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and launch, if all goes according to plan, by the end of 2012.

A majority of finance professionals are cautiously optimistic about growth in 2012, a survey by Accounting Principals, a finance and accounting staffing company, found.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased sharply in October, by 0.9%, to 117.4 (2004 = 100). This follows a 0.1% increase in September and a 0.3% increase in August.

Jon B. Lovelace of The Capital Group died Wednesday at age 84. In 1951, Lovelace joined Capital Group, which his father, Jonathan Bell Lovelace, founded. His legacy was turning Capital Group into a pioneer in international and emerging market investing, a team approach to fund management and long-term investing.

And you thought the U.S. stocks were out of favor. Then came October. While $20.4 billion got pulled out of mutual funds that invest long-term in U.S. stocks, money was flooding into exchange-traded funds that invested in U.S. stocks.

Jon B. Lovelace of The Capital Group passed away Wednesday at age 84. In 1951, Lovelace joined Capital Group, which his father, Jonathan Bell Lovelace, founded.

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse said they would shed overlapping European derivatives businesses and open up clearing services to derivatives rivals, in a bid to win European regulators’ approval of their $10.1 billion merger.

The International Securities Exchange said Thursday that it intended to provide venture capital to the exchange-traded product industry.

The operator of an all-electronic options exchange and licenser of financial indexes said it was beginning to fund the creation of exchange-traded funds by other parties.

Asset management firms recorded average profitability of 28% through 2010 and the first half of 2011, according to a new McKinsey report.

When it comes to mutual fund wholesaling, social media is a young man's game. Sales and distribution today are still all about in-person connections.

Total inflows to long-term mutual funds were $836 million for the week ended Nov. 9, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Eight in 10 advisors who sell annuities report that they are having more client discussions about retirement income planning than they did five years ago. And nearly two-thirds of advisors currently selling annuities indicate that guaranteed income options are expected to increase in importance over the next five years -- more so than any other factor.

HSBC Jintrust Fund Management has launched an on-shore RMB money market fund in China, raising RMB1.16 billion, or US$178 million, in its initial public offering, ended Oct. 28.

Stocks and bonds are moving in the opposite direction more so than anytime in the last 10 years.

Nearly nine out of 10, 87%, of Americans think the country will fall into another recession within the next two years, a Country Financial survey finds. However, only half, 51%, say they are prepared to handle it financially.

Calling the odds of a recession in the U.S. and beyond “uncomfortably high,” Morgan Stanley Smith Barney says it has shifted to an overweight position in safe haven assets and is underweighting risk assets. The change is “the most significant change to our tactical asset allocation in more than two years,” Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Chief Investment Officer Jeff Applegate and two colleagues wrote in a November markets report.

NEW YORK—“We believe in back-to-basics, commonsense investing with the goal of achieving some return above inflation while seeking lower volatility,” said Suzanna Hutchins, investment manager of global funds at Newton, an affiliate of BNY Mellon.