Investments

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.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X Waste Management ETF, which will evenly divide its holdings in hazardous and non-hazardous waste and recycling companies.

Seventy percent of 88 institutional investors surveyed by Northern Trust expect inflation to increase over the next six months and 62% are bracing for a spike in market volatility.

“Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.” Just eight words that have been repeated enough in mutual fund marketing materials for investors to tune out their message; or perhaps they have chosen to ignore the most important of those eight words, the word NOT.

Investors continue to pour more more money into ETFs, even as they shift their focus away from riskier Emerging Markets and into more conservative bond ETFs. That’s the news from State Street Global Advisors, which just released its latest Snapshot report tracking ETF funds.

Fewer workers plan to use their tax refund to pay off bills, and more plan to use it for savings, indicating stronger faith in the economy, a survey of 3,900 people by CareerBuilder found.

Escalating global inflation is the biggest challenge for businesses struggle to recover from the recession, according to the latest Global Economic Conditions survey of 2,300 accountants by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.