Investments

For wealth managers, the big question is this: is the unified managed account a realistic goal that will become a reality over time? Or is it a holy grail that will capture imaginations but remain unrealized, draining resources that would better be spent elsewhere?

Investors tired of miniscule returns from their money market accounts and intrigued by small-cap funds in a variety of industries pumped more than $11.3 billion into diversified U.S. equity mutual funds in the first quarter and more than $14.8 billion into global sector funds.

Waddell & Reed Financial, the Overland Park, Kansas, mutual fund complex, said it earned $45.6 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, in the first quarter.

And global sector equity funds saw $14.8 billion in inflows.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased slightly in April to 65.4, up from 63.8 in March (1985 = 100). The Present Situation Index also increased, to 39.6 from 37.5, and the Expectations Index rose as well, to 82.6 from 81.3.

OppenheimerFunds has launched the Oppenheimer Short Duration Fund, a fund that will seek to take advantage of imbalances in the credit market and provide competitive yield to money market funds and a relative stability of principal.

Wasatch Funds has launched the Wasatch Emerging India Fund, which it says it the first actively managed India mutual fund with a small-cap bias.

Intech has launched the Alpha Capture Index strategy as a passive alternative to capitalization-weighted indexing. Intech says the strategy has the potential to outperform a market-cap-weighted index and is more stable than an equal-weighted portfolio.

Van Eck has launched the Market Vectors Investment Grade Floating Rate ETF, an exchange-traded fund that seeks to track the Market Vectors Investment Grade Floating Rate Index, an index of corporate U.S. dollar-denominated investment grade floating rate notes.

Waddell & Reed Financial, the Overland Park, Kansas, mutual fund complex, said it earned $45.6 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, in the first quarter.

Ameriprise will seek a buyer for its independent broker-dealer subsidiary Securities America, while its first quarter earnings report showed positive growth in other areas.

Energy stocks are outperforming their peers in all other sectors through the first four months of the year while tech stocks are lagging behind the pack.

The Bloomberg Consumer Confidence Index climbed for the fourth straight month, reaching -42.6, the best reading since the end of February.

PIMCO is planning to launch a Total Return bond exchange-traded fund that will be managed by Bill Gross and disclose its holdings daily rather than monthly, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows.

Exchange-traded funds are likely to grab a “significant” share of the 401(k) market in coming years, according to Skip Schweiss, president of TD Ameritrade Trust Co.

Morgan Stanley’s global wealth management business net revenue rose to $3.4 billion for the first quarter, while its total advisor ranks dipped to 17,800 in line with previously reported plans for cuts.The wealth management business’ net revenue was up from $3.1 billion from the previous year due to higher commissions and asset-based revenue. The group had pre-tax income of $348 million compared with $278 million for the first quarter of 2010.

T. Rowe Price reported Thursday that quarterly earnings surged, but missed analysts’ lofty expectations.The Baltimore-based fund company reported a 27% increased in profits from a year earlier to $194.6 million, or 72 cents a share as net revenue rose 23% to $682.4 million.

Aided by a strong tailwind from market appreciation, Janus Capital Group reported an increase in profits in the first quarter as assets under management and revenue rose.The Denver mutual fund company’s earnings increased 21% to $37.9 million, or 21 cents per share, from a year earlier. Revenue was up 7.5% to $265.4 million.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index rose 0.4% in March to 114.1 (2004 = 100), following a 1.0% rise in February and a 0.2% gain in January. This puts the index at an all-time high, The Conference Board

After weathering a dismal 2008, a disastrous 2009 and a decent 2010, things are definitely looking up for hedge funds this year thanks to improving economic conditions around the world and an influx of new capital from institutional investors, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.