Investments

Inflows to municipal bond mutual funds, while still robust, have fallen for a second straight week, to $871 million from funds that report their flows weekly.

Houston-based Salient Partners earlier this month added the Pure Trend Fund, a managed futures offering, to its growing list of alternative mutual funds.

Northern Trust Corporation is expanding its middle office outsourcing service with a brand new position.

BMO Global Asset Management has one more milestone to help establish its presence in the U.S.

Where would a successful trader invest a hypothetical $100,000 windfall? In energy, information technology and utilities, according to Fidelity Investments’ inaugural survey of its top online traders. The survey polled customers who made at least 36 trades over the past 12 months and whose total portfolio performance during this time was at least 20%. …

Janus said fourth-quarter profit declined 13% as clients pulled out money for the 14th consecutive quarter.

President Barack Obama will nominate former US attorney Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing incumbent Chairman Elisse Walter, the New York Post reports.

For alternative mutual funds, 2012 was a mixed bag.

Institutional investors are currently showing more interest in environmental, social, and governance investing, according to new research from Cerulli.

Assets in ETFs and other indexed products will reach $10.4 trillion by 2017, up more than 100% since 2011, a new report from Tiburon Strategic Advisors predicts.

Long-term mutual funds posted inflows of $22.04 billion for the week ended Wednesday, January 16, according to the Investment Company Institute.

JPMorgan's new callable commercial product is gaining momentum in the municipal market, receiving high demand from investors and catching on with others in the industry.

For the week ended Jan. 16, equity mutual funds attracted an estimated $9.32 billion in inflows, down from the previous week’s huge $14.33 billion inflow but nearly three times greater than last year’s record $3.52 billion inflow in early February.

Jacques Longerstaey has joined F-Squared Investments as a senior vice president of investments.

Pioneer Investments is reshuffling its fund lineup including reorganizing four domestic equity funds and liquidating another.

BlackRock is expanding its suite of alternative funds by launching the BlackRock Global Long/Short Equity Fund (BDMAX, BDMIX), which will bet on equity markets across the US and international developed markets.

Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said the firm will seek to capture gains in emerging market currencies through a new actively-managed exchange-traded fund.

Institutional investors are currently showing more interest in environmental, social, and governance investing, according to new research from Boston-based global analytics firm Cerulli Associates.

It’s $20 billion and counting for exchange-traded fund purveyor WisdomTree Investments.

Charles Schwab has added five new funds to its retirement lineups, the San Francisco company announced today.