Investments

Long-term equity and bond mutual funds saw net inflows for the 13th week in a row, taking in $12.48 billion in the week ended June 10, bringing the total net flows for the past 13 weeks to just under $140 billion, the Investment Company Institute said.Flows to stock funds were $5.04 billion, up from $4.66 billion in the previous week. In this category, $2.03 billion went to U.S. stock funds, with foreign stock funds taking in $3.01 billion.Bond funds took in $6.92 billion, down quite a bit from the $8.46 billion they took in for the week ended June 3. Of this category, taxable bond funds saw inflows of $5.46 billion, and municipals saw $1.46 billion.Assets in money funds continued to decline, losing $62.9 billion, the highest level since last September, when investors yanked $120 billion from money funds in a single week due to the Primary Fund breaking the buck.

While the financial services industry largely embraced most of the Obama administration’s financial services overhaul, the idea of removing money funds’ $1 net asset value is causing widespread concern in the mutual fund industry.“If you float the value of a money fund, you’ve essentially destroyed the product,” said Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens. “We’re going to explain clearly why we believe a fluctuating [NAV] is a very bad idea.”The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to propose new money fund rules next week, including a floating NAV for money funds. Another idea is disclosing the $1 NAV to the third decimal, which the ICI also opposes.But the Obama administration believes a floating value for money funds, along with imposed limits on risk, capital requirements and access to emergency liquidity facilities from private sources, will prevent a run on money funds that could endanger the entire capital markets, as what occurred last September when the Primary Fund broke the buck. In addition, the administration is calling on the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets “to assess whether more fundamental changes are necessary and to address systemic risk more directly.”The administration is asking for the Working Group to prepare its report by Sept. 15.At the same time, it warns that additional regulations on money funds, which are vital to the capital markets system and the day-to-day operations of corporate America, could have the opposite effect of driving investors into unregulated or less regulated money market investment vehicles.

Ninety percent of American investors are frustrated about financial losses in the past year, according to “Make the Move,” a survey by the Charles Schwab Corp. One in four is considering leaving their current financial services firm and/or financial adviser.

A U.S. district court has given investors in the Reserve Funds’ Primary Fund until July 22 to object to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan to distribute assets on a pro rata basis. Of the fund’s original $63 billion in assets, $4.55 billion has yet to be returned to investors.

With Putnam Investments, Legg Mason and Invesco AIM recently rolling out absolute-return funds that promise an upside regardless of the market’s condition, some wonder if that is possible.

For most Baby Boomers, even younger ones, the recession has done such a number on their retirement savings that they are gearing up to work longer, set aside more now and live a more modest lifestyle in their so-called golden years, USA Today reports.

While there have been reports of portfolio managers easing back into stocks, one-third of them are still sitting on record amounts of cash, SmartMoney reports.

As the Chinese middle class becomes increasingly familiar with investing, and the nation’s markets open up to international trading, its mutual fund industry is likely to experience incredible growth, Wall Street & Technology reports.

At the hearing on target-date funds that the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission is holding tomorrow, the focus is likely to be on better disclosure of holdings.

In a survey of hedge fund executives attending the Global Alternative Investment Management conference in Monaco this week, 65% said they feared that the economic crisis will drag on, Reuters reports.Another 18% said things could even get worse. Only 17% said they thought it was over.“Bailouts [of banks] have worked somewhat, but problems have been transferred to governments,” said Peter Rigg, an executive with HSBC Private Bank who is one of the pessimists surveyed.Fifty-nine percent said they think Europe is suffering the worst, while only 35.5% said conditions are the most precarious in the U.S.“The worst problems are in western economies that have relied on leverage to grow. Economic power is going East,” said Jaime Castan of RMF Investment Management.But not everyone thinks that Asia is insulated, including Marc Lasry of Avenue Capital, who commented: “There’s a huge fiction out there that Asia is going to be fine, but it needs a strong U.S. and Europe to grow.”Asked how the crisis could compromise hedge fund strategies, executives said they were most concerned about liquidity, the lack of alpha and risk management. That said, the investment style that most, 28%, are optimistic about are distressed/event driven, followed by global macro (24%), managed futures (17%) and general arbitrage (10%).

High-net-worth investors are reordering their priorities when selecting investment providers, according to “New Horizon, New Behavior,” a study of 2,100 investors released by Barclays Wealth.

To help parents and their children alike manage their finances better, Wells Fargo is promoting online budgeting and savings tools available on its website, and releasing the findings of a survey of parents on their children that demonstrate a generational knowledge gap.

Only 376 hedge funds liquidated in the first quarter of the year, down 52% from 778 that shut their doors in the fourth quarter of 2008, Hedge Fund Research said. The number that liquidated in the first quarter represented 4.05% of the 9,050 total number of hedge funds, and the number that went out of business the previous quarter was 7.77%.

The number of people who believe their financial security is worsening is now 45%, down from 49% in April, a survey by Country Financial found.

The Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission have released the agenda and list of speakers at this Thursday’s hearing on target-date funds.

Hedge funds are returning to the practice of leveraging, with some levels as high as 50%, Reuters reports. Nonetheless, risk-taking, even by hedge funds, is not expected to return to pre-crisis levels.

Fidelity Investments is planning to charge advisers for referrals to high-net-worth investors in its discount brokerage program that it makes to them.

After dropping 38.9% in 2008, slightly worse than the S&P 500’s 37% decline, the average stock mutual fund is up 9.9% year to date, quite a bit better than the index’s 5.3% return, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Americans are increasingly worried about their preparedness for retirement, The Hartford found in a survey. Thirty-four percent were either “extremely” or “very” worried about their ability to save for retirement, and 56% said they feared they would have to cut back on their contributions.

Canellos to Run SEC's New York Bureau