Investments

The asset management industry's agility following the financial crisis, particularly its ability to improve profitability, is masking long-term challenges to growth, according to McKinsey & Co.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said trading in futures contracts has surged significantly since it launched a new trading platform for derivatives and extended trading hours.

Traders anticipate that the recent delicate balance between supply and demand in the muni market will be maintained even as issuance ramps up this week in the face of rollover funds.

Vanguard Group founder John C. Bogle said Wednesday that Republication presidential candidates’ pledge to not raise taxes as any part of a solution to the nation’s $1.2 trillion annual fiscal deficit “makes no sense.”

Investors seeking diversity, liquidity and competitive yields when compared to other fixed-income products are trying a relatively new alternative: municipal bond exchange-traded funds.

Investors' continuing obsession with purchasing Treasury bonds is a sign of 'irrational exuberance,' says the chairman of investment manager T. Rowe Price when 10-year yields are under 2.0%.

Investors’ continuing obsession with purchasing Treasury bonds is a sign of ‘irrational exuberance,’ says the chairman of investment manager T. Rowe Price when 10-year yields are under 2.0%.

Muni market participants say the rule in its current form could affect about half of municipal securities and reduce liquidity in the muni bond market. The Volcker Rule was part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that became law in 2010.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange Group and the Osaka Securities Exchange said they plan to merge. The two exchange operators said their combination will “establish an unchallenged position” in domestic stocks and derivatives trading, as well as “enhance global competitiveness” of their platforms.

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 those discussions are becoming more emotional, according to a new report, “The Evolution of the Annuity Industry," released by the Insured Retirement Institute and Cogent Research.

The volatility that has gripped the markets in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has changed the investment management game forever.

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.