Investments

Steadfast Networks said Monday it acquired Radius IT, in a bid to create a network for financial trading.

The outlook for the U.S. economy in 2011 appears to be ... slow and unsteady as she goes.

On the ninth day before Christmas, money invested in U.S.-listed exchange traded funds and exchange-traded products crossed $1 trillion for the first time. The total actually was $1.027 trillion, with $887.2 billion in ETFs and $115.5 billion in ETPs, as tabulated by BlackRock's Global ETF Research and Implementation Strategy Team.

2010 was a year of many challenges. The May 6 Flash Crash and the fallout of the December 2009 arrest of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff kept investors away from stock funds. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed. Mutual funds and their sales intermediaries were charged with more accurately calculating the cost-basis of original investments in securities, and funds prepared for the Jan. 1, 2011 XBRL deadline.

As part of this transaction, U.S. Bancorp, FAF Advisors’ parent, received a 9.5% stake in Nuveen Investments and other cash considerations for FAF’s long term fund family.

Commodities have been on a tear as investors have sought alternatives to the volatile equity market, but several market experts believe that now is still a great time to buy, even though prices are high.

Experts gaze into their crystal balls, and surprisingly, agree on most predictions for this year.

Behavioral finance has been kicking around the halls of academia for several decades, but now some financial companies are finding ways to apply these concepts in the real world.

The key to handling complex issues associated with succession and estate planning is remaining impartial.

As confidence in global currencies wanes, the world's appetite for gold will increase.

In the first 11 months of 2010, assets held in exchange-traded funds increased 19.4%, according to Investment Company Institute figures. In the last 11 months of 2010, assets grew 56.9%.

After three years of cautious spending and paying down debt, American households have significantly improved their balance sheets. Yet consumer confidence slipped this month as more people worried about the job outlook.

Although Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasts modest global growth in 2011, it does predict that stock prices around the world will rise by more than 15% and that the S&P 500 will rise by 9%.

Exchange-traded funds have made for some ugly headlines. They played an integral role in the May 6 flash crash, and more recently a controversy erupted over whether prices could crash on heavily shorted ETFs. Though many consider those fears unfounded, these increasingly popular investments nonetheless pose risks, and financial advisers should be cautious.

New data released from Morningstar shows two of its indexes faced a more difficult month in November, as the asset class in general falls short of matching 2009’s performance.

Spectrem Group announced Wednesday that its Spectrem Millionaire Investor Confidence Index rose seven points in December to end the year at 7.

A new report from Standard & Poor’s shows that home prices and annual growth rates have declined from earlier this year, pointing to a double-dip.

Despite dire warnings of imminent government collapse, since the middle of 2009, only three municipal issues in the “safe” sectors--general obligation, tax backed and essential services—have defaulted, according to Municipal Market Advisor’s data.

Municipal market groups next year will face an uphill battle trying to get Congress to resurrect the Build America Bond program and other bond-related tax incentives that expire Dec. 31.

A new report from Toronto-based Bullion Management Group urges investors to buffer their investments with bullion.