Mutual funds

The coming year is shaping up to be a fresh start for alternative mutual fund shop Pyxis Capital.

To Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary L. Schapiro's mind, the current state of the money market fund business is "living on borrowed time."

The Principal Financial Group has entered into a definitive agreement to buy a 60 percent stake in Claritas Investments, Ltd., a Sao Paulo-based mutual fund and asset management company with more than $1.8 billion in assets under management.

The much-awaited opening of trading in Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Total Return ETF arrived this morning. By noon, 345,800 shares had been traded. Missing from the ringing of the bell at the New York Stock Exchange: the fund’s manager, Bill Gross.

Wedbush Securities has launched a trading platform provider that the firm says will dramatically speed up trades for fund managers and other institutional investors, as well as give them better control over their transaction costs.

The Principal Financial Group has entered into a definitive agreement to buy a 60 percent stake in Claritas Investments, Ltd., a Sao Paulo-based mutual fund and asset management company with more than $1.8 billion in assets under management.

Bill Gross and his team of bond specialists at Pacific Investment Management Company built the Total Return Fund into the world’s largest mutual fund, with more than a quarter-billion dollars in assets. Can he (and they) repeat the trick, with a Total Return exchange-traded fund?

It's often more beneficial in the wealth creation process to go against the grain and do what is uncomfortable

After a strong start in February, domestic stock mutual funds saw cash outflows of $322 million in the most recent weekly statistics.

Fidelity Investments has launched an initiative dubbed “Thinking Big,” for publicly promoting the research of its investment analysts and experts. The firm will launch the initiative in conjunction with its sponsorship of the 2012 TED conference, an annual event that brings together global thought leaders.

State Street Global Advisors has launched two equity exchange-traded funds designed to track MSCI Global Equity Indices, with one focusing on emerging markets and the other widely covering both developed and developing countries.

After a strong start in February, domestic stock mutual funds saw cash outflows of $322 million in the most recent weekly statistics.

Larry Fink wants the asset management industry and government to take the lead in propping up investors’ morale in a flagging market.

Investors have not yet fully recovered their faith in long-term U.S. mutual funds, but the cash outflow in January was not nearly as bad as the previous month.

This is the week that actively managed exchange-traded funds get their biggest booster shot since they first arrived, less than five years ago.

Hungry for healthier returns, more mutual funds are investing in commodities, commodity futures, swaps and options.

Mutual fund firms such as Vanguard and Fidelity Investments are finding themselves at the top of the Kasina Social Media Index.

On Feb. 14, Vanguard's 64,000 Facebook fans received virtual candy hearts with the messages:

Institutional investors continued the pattern established late in 2011 of reducing allocations to equities, according to results of the State Street Investor Confidence Index for February 2012.

American Beacon Advisors has added to its offerings two growth funds, one focused on small-caps and the other mid-caps, managed by Stephens Investment Management Group.