Investments

Bond funds are not as reliable as they have historically been, which his creating some headaches for investors, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Of the 132 mutual funds on the market that employ hedging strategies, nearly half have been launched in the past three years, and in light of the 39% average decline in stock funds last year, more are likely on the way, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Retail investors appear to be regaining some nerve, The Washington Times reports.

Christopher Ryan, managing director of Fidelity International, told Bloomberg he is particularly optimistic about China, citing the economy’s diversification and the government’s stimulus plan.

Massachusetts on Friday subpoenaed four brokers to obtain sales, revenue and training records for leveraged exchange-traded funds: Ameriprise, UBS, LPL and Edward Jones.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee, which holds its first meeting Monday, has released its agenda for upcoming months.

Milliman’s employee benefits practice has introduced a 401(k) comparison tool for sponsors and participants called Power to Know.

As the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank respectively predict world GDP growth of 2.5% and 2% next year and stock markets around the globe are expected to surge ahead of this growth, mutual fund analysts are beginning to weigh in on which sectors could lead the way out of the recession.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is examining how it sells leveraged exchange-traded funds, and Charles Schwab has posted a warning on its website that the products could exacerbate losses for investors who hold them for more than a day.

Asset International has acquired Strategic Insight for an undisclosed sum.

Mutual funds took in $11.05 billion for the week ended July 22, up sharply from the $6.6 billion they netted the previous week, the Investment Company Institute said. The inflows were the highest since the week ended June 17, when long-term mutual funds took in $11.1 billion.

A full 66% of investors do not expect the economy to improve until next year or even later, and only 34% peg improvement for this year, online brokerage TradeKing found in a survey of 3,000 of its customers.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has added a fixed income annuity from Nationwide to its unified managed account platform, so that investors have the option of selecting lifetime income. The brokerage is calling the option Select Retirement.

Exchange-traded funds have attracted $35 billion so far this year, far less than in previous years, but growth is likely to return at a rapid clip once the recession winds down, according to Strategic Insight. By comparison, investors have withdrawn $49 billion from mutual funds.

Fidelity Investments is giving its retail and institutional brokerage clients access to the initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings underwritten by Deutsche Bank.

Between November and March, hedging programs at variable annuity firms supported 94% of their guarantees, up from 93% in the prior period, Milliman said.

UBS has stopped selling leveraged exchange-traded funds, saying that the funds don’t conform to its belief in long-term investing due to the “short-term nature of these securities.”

Securian Retirement is urging sponsors that offer stable-value funds in their 401(k) plan to be aware that there can still be risks in such funds, depending on their holdings and the stability of the financial markets. Such funds need to be monitored, Securian says.

Putnam Investments is planning to cut the fees on many of its funds and tie the fees to the performance of a number of its funds, the company announced Tuesday.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index rose 3.6 points in July 10 119.4, up from 115.8 in June.