Investments

Wealthy investors apparently unnerved by rising oil prices and the potential for higher interest rates and inflation now say they are much less confident about the stock market and the broader economy than they were just one month ago.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has granted exemptive relief for iShares’ registration to offer actively managed equities and fixed income exchange-traded funds, which it filed nearly a year ago.

There are a lot of benefits in unconstrained, global, multi-sector investing.

Despite volatility in the municipal market, sales of individual tax-free bonds to retail investors have been brisk even as cash withdrawals from muni mutual funds are still high, experts say.

A Federal Reserve decision that will let many banks pay dividends again is another sign that the equity markets have returned to health, and it likely will stoke investor demand for financials, according to Mary Ann Deignan, head of equity capital markets in the Americas for UBS.

This year's ICI Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference wraps up today. So let's take a walk down memory lane.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Back in 2007, no one talked about systemic risk. Now, the term “systemic risk” is on everyone’s minds. But defining it has not come out of the constant attention paid to it now.

TIAA-CREF has committed $1 billion in seed capital to Covariance Capital Management, which will start investing in the third quarter.

Continued poor rate spreads between CDs and annuity yields pushed bank-sold annuity sales last year to their lowest level since 2000 and off more than 25% from what was widely viewed as a lackluster 2009.

An uptick in investor inflows and strong performance helped push the Neuberger Berman Equity Income Fund over the $1 billion milestone for the first time.

It may have taken almost 18 years for the combined assets of exchange-traded funds to surpass a trillion dollars. But it should only take another three years to top the second trillion.

PALM DESERT, Calif. – It may have taken almost 18 years for the combined assets of exchange-traded funds to surpass a trillion dollars. But it should only take another three years to top the second trillion.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index, while remaining below neutral territory of 100, rose 6.5 points in March to 98.3. In March 2010, however, it stood at 107.4.

ProShares has launched the ProShares Short Investment Grade Corporate exchange-traded fund, the first inverse investment grade corporate bond exchange-traded fund, which seeks to provide 1x the daily performance of the Markit iBoxx $ Liquid Investment Grade Index.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Registered investment companies vote in favor of management proposals more than 90 percent of the time, according to a study of 3.9 million proxy ballot items.

Investors are looking to invest internationally in 2011 and beyond, a sign that positive sentiment in emerging markets is growing, according to a survey released on Tuesday by Franklin Templeton.The survey of 13,076 respondents in 12 countries found that 62% of U.S. and global respondents plan to invest in international markets, including Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and India, over the next 10 years. Yet just 34% of respondents are currently investing outside of their own markets. At the same time only 33% believe their own country's market will perform better than the rest of the world in 2011, said Franklin Templeton, which shows a willingness to consider opportunities globally.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- Baillie Gifford is an independent investment management firm based in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the end of 2010, it managed more than $113 billion in bond and stock portfolios.

SEC and CFTC rulemaking will define “the workload for the coming year,’’ said Karrie McMillan, general counsel of the Investment Company Institute as its mutual funds conference opened Monday in California. But where that work will end up cannot yet be determined.

The selling of investments to individual investors and their purchases of them are mired in dysfunction, according to the former director of conduct risk and sector leader for asset management of the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom.

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- The selling of investments to individual investors and their purchases of them are mired in dysfunction, according to the former director of conduct risk and sector leader for asset management of the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom.