Investments

KeyBanc Capital Markets doubled its personnel last month by hiring four professionals from Chapdelaine Credit Partners, a bond broker that closed in January.

Early indications are that March will follow suit, according to Kehrer-LIMRA.

SiVest Group, investment advisor to the Firsthand Funds, has launched the Firsthand Technology Value Fund, a closed-end, publicly traded fund.

The Web-based analytical tool allows advisors to compare more than 10,000 mutual funds and ETFs in 60 different categories and formats to help them pick and choose the products that will best meet their clients' individual investment needs.

The purpose of the institute is to provide in-depth investment insights to clients.

Six days after the Securities and Exchange Commission holds a roundtable discussion regarding money market funds and systemic risk, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) will host its own one-day money market fund summit.

State Street Global Advisors has launched the SPDR Nuveen S&P High Yield Municipal Bond Exchange Traded Fund, developed in conjunction with Nuveen Asset Management, which will serve as sub-advisor. The fund seeks to track the performance of the S&P Municipal Yield Index.

BlackRock has launched the BlackRock Investment Institute, whose purpose is to provide investment insights to clients.

Job listings rose year-over-year 23% and job searches rose 10% in March, CareerBuilder said. In addition, in a recent CareerBuilder survey, 31% of full-time workers said they will look for a new position as the economy improves, and 77% said they would be receptive to a new opportunity in 2011.

Dreyfus has launched the Dreyfus India Fund, rounding out its emerging markets offerings. Dreyfus affiliate Hamon U.S. Investment Advisors, which specializes in Asian investments, will sub-advise the fund. The Dreyfus India Fund will invest in both equities and fixed income, and seek companies with strong growth potential and that are attractively priced.

Vanguard's Jack Bogle argues for more competition.

Tax-free municipal money market fund assets declined by $2.25 billion to $316.80 billion in the week ending April 11, representing a major acceleration of outflows from the previous week, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

ETFs make up roughly 10% of the average Gen X or Y investment portfolio, according to data from TD Ameritrade, and people of all ages have higher ETF balances today than six months ago.

Some advisors are averse to even DISCUSSING the value of portfolio management, possibly believing that we all spend too much time talking as if financial planning and portfolio management are the same service--which they clearly are not.

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Russia Small-Cap ETF, a fund that seeks to replicate the Market Vectors Russia Small-Cap Index.

ProShares has launched two new exchange-traded funds, the ProShares Ultra High Yield and the ProShares Ultra Investment Grade Corporate funds. The firm says it is they are the first ETFs to offer exposure to the two fixed income asset classes.

March was the third month in a row that retail investors were net buyers of individual municipal bonds, and it also was the fifth consecutive month that mom-and-pop investors sold more shares of muni mutual funds than they purchased, according to the March Transparency Report published by BondDesk Group LLC.

President Obama announced the framework of a plan Wednesday to shrink the deficit $4 trillion over 12 years, and urged House and Senate leaders to appoint teams to negotiate a final bipartisan plan by the end of June.

More than a month following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, more and more institutional investment managers are beginning to label the country’s stock options as undervalued, with many seeing upside in the region.

Long-term mutual funds had $8.9 billion in inflows in the week ended April 6, the Investment Company Institute said Wednesday.