Investments

Northern Trust has launched a new family of exchange-traded funds called FlexShares. The four funds, which are trading on the New York Stock Exchange, are based on indexes created and maintained by Morningstar and Markit.

The term "emerging markets" was first coined nearly 30 years ago and has become outdated, as the differences between developed and emerging markets have lessened, according to a white paper from Standish Mellon Asset Management Co., the fixed income division of BNY Mellon Asset Management.

Russell Investments has added four additional investment discipline indexes to its series, all of which concentrate on small-cap securities.

Americans are divided on their outlook for the economy, a Harris poll of 2,464 adults earlier this month found. Twenty-one percent expect the economy will improve, 45% think it will stay the same, and 34% fear it will get worse.

NEW YORK-"We are not in a death spiral, like we were in 2008 with Lehman Brothers," maintained Scott Migliori, U.S. chief investment officer of RCM, an asset management firm that is a member of Allianz Global Investors.

Muni investors have herded into short-term debt the last few months thinking that if rates rise, longer-term bonds will plummet in value and it will be good to have cash on hand to reinvest at higher rates. But are short-term bonds really such a safe haven?

Within a day of each other, two companies -- Guggenheim Investments and Invesco -- launched new exchange traded funds for Chinese yuan-denominated bonds on the New York Stock Exchange.

The latest entrant into the wealth management arena comes not from Wall Street but from just outside Silicon Valley, and is taking dead aim at the Internet brokerage space for higher-end investors with a slick Web-based dashboard, holistic account monitoring and a stable of financial advisers to complement the technology with a human touch.

Credit Suisse has launched the Credit Suisse Global Equity Market Neutral ETN, its fifth alternative exchange-traded note.

Fidelity Charitable has created an array of seven investment options offering diversification across asset classes and risk. In addition, Fidelity Charitable has created an online tool to help investors make investment decisions.

Financial advisors and clients who may have been curious about exchange-traded fund managed portfolios but have been deterred by the lack of any objective rating or way to compare the performances of hundreds of these funds will soon have those tools at their disposal.

Individual investors are buying exchange-traded funds at a fast pace, even though many don’t fully understand them, according to a survey from Charles Schwab.

Fidelity Charitable has created an array of seven investment options offering diversification across asset classes and risk. In addition, Fidelity Charitable has created an online tool to help investors make investment decisions.

Credit Suisse has launched the Credit Suisse Global Equity Market Neutral ETN, its fifth alternative exchange-traded note.

Employees who are automatically enrolled in target-date funds when they are signed up for a 401(k) plan are very likely to stick with the target date investment strategy for the long haul, according to a study conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

Putnam Investments has developed a new website for financial advisers featuring sophisticated, open-architecture portfolio modeling tools (www.putnam.com/advisor). The site builds upon a series of practice management recommendations, links to Putnam’s social media sites, articles and videos of the company’s investment professionals discussing their investment outlook and the firm’s analytical tool FundVisualizer, which can model a portfolio from a universe of more than 11,000 mutual funds and ETFs.

Morningstar will begin ranking and researching managed ETF portfolios by the end of the year, the research firm announced at its second annual ETF Invest Conference in Chicago Thursday.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index rose 0.3% in August, following a 0.6% gain in July and a 0.3% increase in June.

Long-Term funds netted $2.13 billion in the week ended Sept. 14, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Financial advisors and their wealthier clients will have a lot more separately managed alternative accounts to consider next year, according to a new study by Aite Group, the Boston-based independent financial industry research and advisory firm.