Investments

Bond, Stock Funds Reap $136B in 2Q09, Best Sales Since First Quarter of 2007

NEW YORK -- An investors' advocacy group is challenging the Obama Administration and Congress to do more for the needs of average investors.

Brokers who offer advice to investors may be held to the same fiduciary standards as investment advisers if legislation proposed by the Obama Administration is passed by Congress.

hedge funds regulation crisis sec securities and exchange commission

The plaintiffs’ attorney in the mutual fund fee case heading to the Supreme Court has somehow obtained e-mails between two executives at Harris Associates, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A decline in world equity markets of 4.9% between July 2 and July 9 has forced investors to sale back their risk taking and return to recession-proof stocks, according to Merrill Lynch's monthly survey of fund managers.

The mutual fund industry will be a shadow of its former self in just five years time, if the findings of a new study by Novarica pan out.

While competitors are roiled by the market turmoil and the market faces lower returns for some time to come, Charles Schwab is proactively cutting fees, lowering investment minimums and offerings popular exchange-traded funds to gain market share, Barron’s reports.

Long-term stock and bond mutual funds netted $8.873 billion in inflows in the week ended July 8, the 17th straight week of inflows, the Investment Company Institute said.

Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin is investigating the sales materials of fund companies that sell leveraged exchange-traded funds, The Boston Globe reports.

The Department of the Treasury is proposing legislation that would require all hedge funds and private capital pools with $30 million or more of assets under management to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sixty-four percent of the calls going to Financial Finesse, which provides financial counseling to employees, are about debt reduction and budgeting, whereas only 15% of the calls are about investing and retirement planning.

More investment managers expect corporate earnings to increase in the next three months, and a majority expect global gross domestic product growth to accelerate in the next six months, according to a survey conducted by Northern Trust Global Advisors.

Janus announced Tuesday that its chief executive officer, Gary Black, has resigned, and will be replaced with Tim Armour, a director, as acting CEO.

Automatic enrollment into 401(k) plans is having the greatest impact on younger, lower-income workers, Fidelity Investments reported Tuesday.

A full 49% of retirees are insecure about their financial future, up from only 20% who were afraid a year ago, a survey conducted by LIMRA, the Society of Actuaries and the International Foundation for Retirement Education found.

Nomura will acquire a 35% stake in LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Co., a subsidiary of Life Insurance Corporation of India.

ProShares has introduced the nation’s first 130/30 exchange-traded fund, linked to the Credit Suisse 130/30 Large-Cap Index.

AQR Capital Management has launched three momentum indexes and mutual funds, the AQR Momentum Index, AQR Small Cap Momentum Index and AQR International Momentum Index. The three no-load mutual funds are the AQR Momentum Fund, AQR Small Cap Momentum Fund and AQR International Momentum Fund. Each requires a minimum investment of $5,000.

Financial advisers have sworn by asset allocation and diversification for years, but in the face of the market’s demise in 2008, some are rethinking that age-old wisdom, The Wall Street Journal reports.