Investments

Assets of total money market mutual funds fell by $7.19 billion to $3.498 trillion for the week ending April 2, according to the Investment Company Institute.

While the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 391.47 points on Tuesday and many investment banks' stocks rocketed in the mid-double digits on the good news of infusion of capital from shareholders, Lipper preliminary data on mutual fund results for the first quarter of the year was disappointing, The Wall Street Journal reports this morning.

The Investment Company Institute said it welcomes Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan to overhaul the financial system’s regulation apparatus.

Pax World Management Corp. has launched three new mutual funds focused on environmental and international concerns. The funds are Pax World Global Green Fund, Pax World Small Cap Fund, and Pax World International Fund.

NEW YORK-FTSE has partnered with Conflict Securities Advisory Group, a risk measurement firm based in Washington, D.C., that has been focusing on Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria since just before the terrorist attacks in 2001, through the new FTSE CSAG Terror-Free Index Series.

JPMorgan Tries to Keep Top-Producing Bear Staff

Charles Schwab Corp. of San Francisco is facing a potential class-action lawsuit over no-load ultra short bond fund that allegedly loaded up on mortgage-backed securities and misled investors.

American Express to Buy GE Money Unit for $1.1B

A Fresh Look at the $5 Billion in Mutual Fund Restitution Money

Eliot Spitzer, onetime Wall Street crusader, New York State Attorney General and New York Governor in a first term that ended with his abrupt resignation on March 17, may be forced to release thousands of incriminating e-mails linked to his alleged smear campaign against Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno.

BOSTON-The worldwide, far-reaching ramifications of questionable subprime mortgages in the United States should have been foreseen and could have been prevented, separately managed account and mutual fund executives concurred at the Money Management Institute's annual conference here earlier this month.

Two years after their introduction, exchange-traded notes are still relatively unknown even among financial experts, but an increasingly volatile commodities market could alert investors to their hidden potential.

Reaction to the Subprime Crisis in the first quarter of 2008.

Market Outlook

Albany District Attorney David Soares has done an about-face and has told New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno that ex-governor Eliot Spitzer’s alleged involvement in an investigation into Bruno’s whereabouts was absolutely, positively Spitzer’s orders, according to reports over the weekend.

A £1 billion ($2 billion) hedge fund run out of London by Lewis Chester, Pentagon Capital Management, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, The New York Times reports this morning.

NEW YORK—FTSE is ramping up its partnership with the Conflict Securities Advisory Group, which has been focusing on Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria since 2001, through the new FTSE CSAG Terror-Free Index Series, launched here Wednesday at a press conference at the Women’s National Republican Club.

J.P. Morgan said emerging market external debt increased inflows marginally from $4 billion in February to $5.5 billion.

BOSTON—With auction rate securities in question, Evergreen Investments’ equity managers are now earnestly looking for alternate sources of liquidity, the firm announced in a conference call late yesterday.

Russell Investments has launched six new “strategy” funds in its LifePoints Funds, Target Date Series, including an “in retirement” portfolio