Investments

After a brief recovery in May the State Street Global Investor Confidence Index fell back below 100 in June, losing 5.1 points to settle at 99.2.

Memories of the 2008-2009 market crash are keeping Baby Boomers from investing at a time when many are fearful they'll outlive their retirement savings, according to a new survey by Allianz Life Insurance.

Securities Fraud Attorney Mark A. Tepper has filed a new round of claims with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) against Minneapolis-based Questar Capital, alleging “failure to supervise” a Questar Capital broker-dealer named Edward Gelb.

Investors -- institutional and individual -- continue to be cautious, favoring conservative funds within the equities area and favoring debt over riskier investments. But any sense of serious worry among investors seems to be waning.

The new tool ranks the safety of 44 countries' bonds, with Norway topping the list thanks to its low debt and comparatively fewer risks from abroad while the U.S. checked in at No. 15.

Two former employees at ICAP’s mortgage backed securities desk sought more than $75 million from their former employer.

One popular approach to retirement investing has long been bond ladders, but this tried and true method has always had a few drawbacks. One is inflation risk. Another is the difficulty of creating a diversified portfolio because of the minimum price for buying bonds.

Most consumers don’t read the prospectus they receive when they purchase a variable annuity and a new report released by the Insured Retirement Institute on Monday found that 94% of consumers would prefer to receive a shorter, printed summary prospectus online or upon request.

A trio of new bond fund products on offer by Fidelity, iShares and PIMCO provide smaller investors with the opportunity get more of the benefits of a bond ladder without the usual bond fund downsides.

Brinker Capital this week became the latest independent investment management firm to add a suite of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its defined contribution retirement plan offering, adding seven new ETFs that range from defensive fixed-income funds to aggressive equity-based funds.

Money and time are both precious commodities at family offices, and Fidelity Investments’ 140 single-family office clients were looking for ways to help their clients get on top of the administrative tasks involved in doing good.

Investors are interested in innovative investments that meet specific principals, according to a study by CREATE Research, commissioned by Citi’s global transaction services and Principal Global Investors.

Research Affiliates sees high inflation, low growth in the developed world. BlackRock looks for companies with strong cash flow. Gold prices rise.

Canada’s securities commissions have proposed to require transaction data on over-the-counter derivatives to be reported to trade repositories.

The world’s top foreign exchange dealers are working on an industry-wide initiative to reduce the risk of “flash-crash” hitting the global currency markets.

While mutual fund companies in general are not embracing mobile technologies to the degree that banks, credit cards and self-directed brokerages are, Vanguard and TIAA-CREF stand out in terms of its offering research and trades via mobile devices, according to Corporate Insight.

In the last proxy season, the 35 most prominent shareholder activists, who together manage more than $500 billion in assets, filed resolutions with nine oil and gas companies pressing them to disclose their plans for managing the risks of gas hydraulic fracturing -- or “fracking”-- which is increasingly common.

Nuveen Investments has launched the Nuveen Inflation Protected Municipal Bond Fund, which aims to protect investors against inflation and rising taxes.

While the zero or near-zero interest-rate policies of central banks around the developed world are continuing, trading of active cash treasuries and their corresponding futures products remains active and interest rate futures markets both in the U.S. and Europe continue to grow and to add new products and new competition.

In the wake of the financial crisis that brought some of Wall Street's biggest firms to their knees and sparked a wave of sweeping regulatory changes, a new report from The Conference Board shows that companies are no longer hesitant to dismiss CEOs for cause.