Investments

BOSTON—“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.

A pan-African commodity and derivatives exchange said it will open in the middle of next year.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has three words for asset managers specializing in registered alternative investment products: Bring it on.

"Investors are running scared, from fear to fear,” said Brad Durham, managing director of EPFR, a global fund tracking firm, during an address at the Fund Forum USA’s Global Fund Distribution Summit.

BOSTON—Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has three words for asset managers specializing in registered alternative investment products: Bring it on.

NEW YORK-- Stifel Financial Corp. Chairman, President and Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski urged pessimistic members of the financial services industry to go back and read a 1979 BusinessWeek article titled “Death of Equities."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 101.79 points to 12170.18 Tuesday. The Dow Jones U.S. Total Stock Market Index rose 150.95 points to 13242.81. Stocks were lifted after news that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would resign after a budget law is approved.

Nasdaq OMX Group and a unit of Canada’s TMX Group said they are developing a family of capital markets indices based on U.S. Treasury instruments that will be rebalanced daily, instead of monthly.

"The greatest stimulus package in the world is certainty. For the past two years we have not had certainty," Bob Reynolds, president and chief executive of Putnam Investments told the Fund Forum USA’s Global Fund Distribution Summit here Tuesday.

Wachovia Bank NA, currently Wells Fargo & Co., has reached a tentative settlement of a class action suit with municipal issuers over antitrust charges of bid-rigging for municipal investment, derivatives and other contracts.

BOSTON—“The greatest stimulus package in the world is certainty. For the past two years we have not had certainty,” Bob Reynolds, president and chief executive of Putnam Investments told the Fund Forum USA’s Global Fund Distribution Summit here Tuesday.

The ongoing decline of both public and private pension plans has afforded life insurers space to offer products that guarantee a person an income stream for life.

Nasdaq OMX Group and a unit of Canada’s TMX Group said they are developing a family of capital markets indices based on U.S. Treasury instruments that will be rebalanced daily, instead of monthly.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Gary Gensler said Monday he recused himself from the regulator’s probe of the failure of derivatives player MF Global, because “I didn't want my participation to in any way be a distraction.''

Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Gary Gensler said Monday he recused himself from the regulator’s probe of the failure of derivatives player MF Global, because “I didn't want my participation to in any way be a distraction.''

The whipsaw of stock prices this year is not due to faulty functioning of markets, say exchange operators. Tinkering with market data or other parts of a "highly tuned engine" must be carried out carefully, as a result, said Goldman Sachs' head of U.S. equities trading.

"A Random Walk Down Wall Street," written by Princeton economist Burton Malkiel, was first published in 1973.

The owners of the Standard & Poor’s Indices and the Dow Jones Indices said they will create a joint venture in index services.

Eileen Rominger, director of the SEC's division of investment management, testified last month before the U.S. Senate that the commission is reviewing whether the widespread use of exchange-traded funds is contributing to market volatility.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell Friday, finishing the week down 247.87 points to 11983.24 and ending a five-week winning streak. Stocks slipped 61.23 points on Friday.