Investments

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the U.S. rose 1% in December to 112.4, following a 1.1% gain in November and a 0.4% rise in October.

Frost Investment Advisors has launched the Frost Diversified Strategies Fund, a mutual fund that combines hedge and private equity approaches. The fund seeks to reduce downside volatility while providing upside investment opportunities.

The latest report from LoanPerformance, released this week, showed another notable decline in November, with prices down 5% from the recent peak in May.

Tax-exempt money market funds posted their first decline since mid-December as outflows of $4.35 billion trimmed total net assets to $329.91 billion for the week ended Jan. 17, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

The sophisticated investor in retail municipal bonds has ­remained calm the past few months even as mutual funds have dumped state and local ­government debt by the truckload.

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved two sets of rules for asset-backed securities Thursday, including one that would apply to certain municipal securities in early 2015.

Larry Pitkowsky and Keith Trauner, former portfolio managers at the Fairholme Funds, have formed GoodHaven Capital Management, an investment firm with a go-anywhere mandate. The firm will initially offer separately managed accounts for high-net-worth individuals, institutions and retirement accounts and launch a no-load mutual fund in the second quarter.

Stock markets around the world are on the rise and investor sentiment is, not surprisingly, riding along.

RiverNorth Capital, in partnership with DoubleLine as sub-advisor, has launched the RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Income Fund.

With the two launches, Schwab now has a total of 13 equity and fixed income ETFs.

The hedge fund industry has recovered most of the ground it lost during the financial crisis.

Charles Schwab has launched the Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap ETF and Schwab U.S. REIT ETF, bringing Schwab’s total fixed income and equity ETF offerings to a total of 13.

At $1.917 trillion, the industry is just shy of its peak level, reached in the second quarter of 2008.

Redemptions since Dec. 2 total $15.76 billion.

For all those bears out there it’s time to turn those frowns upside down.

With stocks up for the seventh consecutive week, Bob Doll, BlackRock chief equity strategist, sees no reason to expect a plunge.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management is now offering its private banking clients Cash Management Access Accounts that will allow them to manage banking and self-directed investments in one place.

Low interest rates and a market skepticism keep annuities down in 2010, but 2011 looks brighter.

Asset managers can use the online resource when preparing a fund launch or moving a fund to a new service provider.

Global equities are benefiting from an increasingly positive outlook by investors, according to the latest BoA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers.Just over half of fund managers, 55%, say they’re overweight in global equities, the largest proportion since July 2007. Just last month, only 40% of fund managers said they were overweight in international stocks. The additional assets appear to have come from bonds—54% of fund managers are now underweight in bonds, from 47% in December.