Investments

The Rye Brook, N.Y. developer of index-based commodity and liquid alternative investment products, this week unveiled a new exchange-traded fund designed for investors looking for even more exposure to emerging markets.

Unless high-speed professional trading somehow leads to more Flash Crashes and everybody decides they need complete liquidity on all investments, how fast you can get in and out of these funds should not matter much.

Altegris Advisors has launched the Altegris Macro Strategy Fund, which it is characterizing as the “ultimate go-anywhere fund.”

Too many investors and even their financial advisors are not paying enough attention to “what’s under the hood” of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that have become so popular with investors in the past two or three years, according to S&P equity analyst Todd Rosenbluth.

Munder Capital Management has launched the Munder Integrity Mid-Cap Value Fund and the Munder Integrity Small/Mid-Cap Value Fund, both of which are sub-advised by subsidiary Integrity Asset Management, a value specialist that Munder acquired earlier this year.

Barclays Bank has launched the iPath U.S. Treasury 5-Year Bull Exchange Traded Note and the iPath U.S. Treasury 5-Year Bear Exchange Traded Note.

Altegris Advisors has launched the Altegris Macro Strategy Fund, which it is characterizing as the “ultimate go-anywhere fund.”

Van Hulzen Asset Management and Witter Partners have launched the Iron Horse Fund, a mutual fund that invests in dividend-paying stocks and uses call options to reduce volatility and create incremental income. Van Hulzen is the fund’s advisor and Witter is its distributor and marketer.

Consumer Reports’ Consumer Sentiment Index rose slightly from 46.2 in June to 48.5 in July but remained in negative territory, as the stagnant job market is making consumers cautious about spending.

Gold prices rallied in U.S. dollars and hit an all-time high in Euros -- a response to Moody’s downgrade of Portuguese government debt to junk last week -- amid concern that troubles in Italy and Greece will drive Euro down.

After seeing assets flow out of ETFs in May -- the first time flows have reversed direction since August 2010 -- the ETF Industry saw a 1.4%, or $8 billion, decline in overall assets in June, according to State Street Global Advisors, which just released its latest Snapshot report tracking ETF funds.

Morningstar has added sophisticated asset allocation and forecasting functionality to Morningstar Direct, its investment analysis platform for institutional investors.

American Beacon Advisors has launched the American Beacon Flexible Bond Fund, which seeks to deliver positive returns no matter what the market direction by investing in a broad range of fixed income instruments.

After a period of booming sales in first quarter of 2011, annuity sales through banks have fallen off significantly, according to a new report by Kehrer-LIMRA, the banking industry research unit of LIMRA.

BlackRock reviews its accuracy for the year so far. Barclays advises on building a muni porfolio. Raymond James sees reasons to buy.

American Beacon Advisors has launched the American Beacon Flexible Bond Fund, which seeks to deliver positive returns no matter what the market direction by investing in a broad range of fixed income instruments.

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index gained 0.50 percentage points in June, rising from 99.5 to 100.00—an increase of 5.4% from June 2010.

So whatever happened to that Armageddon in the $475-billion municipal bond fund market?

Euro Pacific Asset Management has launched the EuroPac Hard Asset Fund, a new investment product designed to mitigate against inflation and the dollar devaluation.

Late last year, prominent banking analyst Meredith Whitney warned investors that between 50 and 100 municipalities were headed for default and that the carnage would cost investors hundreds of billions of dollars. But at the midway point of 2011, that's hardly been the case.