Investments

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.

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.