Investments

Despite concerns over the debt crisis in Europe and the growing debate over a second global recession, recent news on the domestic economic front has been “relatively decent,” according to Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

Investors withdrew $5 billion from U.S. stock and bond long-term funds in September, Strategic Insight reports.

Gemini Fund Services is expanding its portfolio, building out its Northern Lights Fund Trust I shared mutual fund trust with the addition of three new funds from Ascendant Advisors.

Hedge funds took in $6.1 billion in net new flows in August, marking the seventh month of inflows since January, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research. For the first eight months of the year, hedge funds have seen $51 billion in inflows.

The Consumer Reports Sentiment Index remained weak in October, dropping minimally to 47.6 from 48.8 the month before—but showed some glimmers of hope for the economy.

Hedge funds took in $6.1 billion in net new flows in August, marking the seventh month of inflows since January, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research. For the first eight months of the year, hedge funds have seen $51 billion in inflows.

Municipal bonds are at some of their cheapest levels, relative to Treasuries, in market history. The problem is, most muni buyers don’t care.

While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 14.3% in the third quarter, many mutual fund categories performed worse, according to Lipper.

As head of global exchange-traded fund services at BNY Mellon, Joe Keenan has a front-row seat on developments in the exchange-traded fund industry. As such, Keenan fully expects ETFs to continue their incredible success story. Money Management Executive Editor Lee Barney recently spoke with Keenan on the drivers of ETF growth.

BlackRock has launched three mutual funds that invest in alternative investments, the BlackRock Commodity Strategies, BlackRock Emerging Markets Long/Short and BlackRock Global Long/Short Credit funds.

ProShares has launched the ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas and ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Natural Gas exchange-traded funds. The two funds are tied to the Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Subindex.

ProShares has launched the ProShares Ultra DJ-UBS Natural Gas and ProShares UltraShort DJ-UBS Natural Gas exchange-traded funds. The two funds are tied to the Dow Jones-UBS Natural Gas Subindex.

BlackRock has launched three mutual funds that invest in alternative investments, the BlackRock Commodity Strategies, BlackRock Emerging Markets Long/Short and BlackRock Global Long/Short Credit funds.

While the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 14.3% in the third quarter, many mutual fund categories performed worse, according to Lipper.

Litman Gregory Fund Advisors has launched the Litman Gregory Masters Alternative Strategies Fund, a multi-manager, multi-strategy fund that offers investors diversified exposure to absolute return-oriented strategies.

Russell Investments has launched four additional investment discipline exchange traded funds, the new offerings focused on small-cap indexes. Russell’s investment discipline indexes take indexing to the next level by aiming to mirror the way equity managers invest.

On the heels of the success of its Keeley Small Cap Dividend Value Fund, Keeley Asset Management has launched the Keeley Mid Cap Dividend Fund.

Brown Advisory has launched the Brown Advisory Tactical Bond Fund, a fund focused on total return that, using a quantitative modeling process to track macro movements in bond sectors, will invest in fixed-income products including tax-exempt municipal bonds, corporate bonds, U.S. Treasury bonds, Treasury inflation protected securities and cash equivalents.

Investors have pulled nearly $80 billion this year out of mutual funds that invest in U.S. stocks. That's the tally after investors yanked $5.5 billion from all types of mutual funds in the last week of September.

While the boards of directors of mutual funds are not responsible for managing risk, they still have a key role to play in overseeing investment and operational risks, according to a white paper just released by the Investment Company Institute and Independent Board of Directors.