Investments

Columbia Management has launched two absolute-return funds, the Columbia Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Fund and the Columbia Absolute Return Enhanced Multi-Strategy Fund. Both funds use multiple strategies to reduce portfolio volatility.

TD Ameritrade has opened its five fund-of-fund portfolios, the Amerivest ETFs, to include exchange-traded funds. Previously, the portfolios only invested in mutual funds.

John Paulson, the founder of hedge fund giant Paulson & Co., earned a record $4.9 billion in 2010 overseeing a fund that exited the year with more than $36 billion under management, according to a survey.

Twenty years of research shows that companies with the strongest earnings deliver the best near- and long-term stock performance.

The municipal securities market is beset by problems that defy easy solutions, academics and experts told municipal analysts Friday.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to -46.9 in the week ended March 27, its first increase in five weeks. The index is based on telephone interviews with 1,000 consumers aged 18 and over.

Lazard Asset Management has launched the Lazard Emerging Markets Multi-Strategy Portfolio, a mutual fund that will employ both emerging markets equity and debt strategies

Chief executive officers’ outlook for their company and economy improved markedly in the first quarter from the end of 2010, the Business Roundtable First Quarter 2011 CEO Economic Outlook Survey shows.

Despite the fact investor interest in emerging markets seemed to decline during the first quarter, Emerging Global Advisors announced its assets under management soared as investors looked for more precise exposures to emerging market opportunities.

But $1.42 billion is redeemed from equity funds.

Tax-exempt municipal money market funds lost nearly $3 billion in the week ended March 28 as total net assets fell to $319.30 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Self-regulatory officials may assess fees on municipal advisors based on their advisory activity and are focused on disclosure to retail muni investors.

Fixed and variable annuities sold in through banks each changed course, the former rising and the latter falling in January, according to the Kehrer-Jackson Monthly Bank Annuity Sales Survey.

Five experts offer smart strategies to use in these uncertain times.

There are more choices than ever, but are these new products largely unnecessary?

Firm continues to roll out multi-asset class funds to meet demand for diversification.

A former municipal derivatives trading desk manager at Banc of America Securities LLC has pleaded guilty to one criminal count of engaging in a conspiracy to falsify bank records in connection with a scheme to rig bids and pay kickbacks for investment agreements and other financial contracts in the muni market.

"Investors, while maintaining a core exposure to BRIC countries, should not close their eyes to other growth areas in the emerging world," Chris Laine, portfolio manager for active emerging market equities at State Street Global Advisors, said in the report. "Many of the smaller emerging and frontier economies have quietly been making investor-friendly reforms and deserve the attention of international investors."

MFS Investment Management has rolled out the MFS Global Multi-Asset and MFS Absolute Return funds in response to growing demand for greater portfolio diversification and lower volatility through multi-asset class funds.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- At the start of 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission established a specialized unit within its Enforcement Division devoted to the looking for fraud and other perfidies in the $40 trillion field of asset management.