Investments

Porfolio Rethink has introduced seven new indexes that it says are alternatives to the 19th-century Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones Industrial average. Today, the company says, companies are global and investors are much more sophisticated.

The wind is at the back of alternative energy and it has a sunny future that investors should prepare to capitalize on. That’s the word from Anna Davydova, portfolio manager of Fidelity Select Environment and Alternative Energy.

In a major sting operation by a joint task force involving the Securities and Exchange Commission’s South Florida Regional Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami and the FBI, an alleged scheme involving several penny stock promoters and several CEOs of microchip companies has been exposed, with fraud charges filed against the principals.

Portfolio Rethink has introduced seven new indexes that it says are alternatives to the 19th-century Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average. Today, the company says, companies are global and investors are much more sophisticated.

Following an announcement from The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in January that it ordered Charles Schwab & Company, Inc., to pay $18 million to repay investors in its YieldPlus Fund after investment losses, a FINRA Arbitrator awarded damages, attorney’s fees and other costs to a couple invested in the fund.

When it comes to sovereign risk ratings, it could be a case of "out of Greece and into the fire" as venerable credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's this week joined Moody’s in issuing a sobering warning that Italy could be the next European nation in line for a downgrade.

BlackRock favors U.S. growth stocks and quality U.S. bonds. GMO recommends cash rather than other forms of “tail-risk” protection. In Russell survey, bullish sentiment for U.S. large cap growth stocks dropped but still a majority view. Barclays expects that central banks will ignore recommendation by Bank of International Settlements to act against inflation.

Guinness Atkinson Asset Management has launched the Renminbi Yuan & Bond Fund, which it says is the first traditional open-end mutual fund to invest directly in bonds denominated in the Chinese currency, Renminbi.

First Trust Advisors is planning to launch the First Trust ISE Cloud Computing exchange-traded fund on Nasdaq on Wednesday, which it says is the first ETF focused on cloud computing.

Rising oil prices, $14 trillion in federal debt, the near shutdown of the government and a slowing global economy resulted in "horrible" results for equity funds in the second quarter, said Tom Roseen, head of research services at Lipper, during his company's preliminary performance report on equity funds in the second quarter of the year.

American investors are in risk-aversion mode and are not likely to get out of that funk until interest rates start rising. That’s the fundamental conclusion of Morningstar senior stock analyst Greggory Warren.

In a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), experts recommended that middle-income retirees convert a portion of their savings into an inflation-adjusted annuity or opt for an annuity instead of a lump sum from an employer sponsored defined benefit (DB) plan. They also recommended that Americans delay taking Social Security benefits until at least full retirement age.

While investment managers are not worried about the end of the government QE2 stimulus, their enthusiasm for the economic recovery, stocks and bonds is waning, Russell Investments found in its quarter Investment Managers Outlook survey.

First Trust Advisors is planning to launch the First Trust ISE Cloud Computing exchange-traded fund on Nasdaq on Wednesday, which it says is the first ETF focused on cloud computing.

Guinness Atkinson Asset Management has launched the Renminbi Yuan & Bond Fund, which it says is the first traditional open-end mutual fund to invest directly in bonds denominated in the Chinese currency, Renminbi.

A hedge fund services unit of Citigroup in Bermuda has become the latest in a line of third-party middle and back office service providers to be sued by the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s firm to recoup collect funds for disgruntled investors. The unit, called Citi Hedge Fund Services Ltd of Bermuda, was the fund administrator for the Kingate Global Fund Ltd. and Kingate Euro Fund, feeder funds that invested in Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Madoff is now…

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