Mutual funds

PIMCO Makes a Push into Equities; Credit Suisse Suspends High Volatility ETN; SEC Widens Probe of ETFs

This week, the age of the actively managed exchange-traded fund officially debuts.

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

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

State Street’s SPDR Morgan Stanley Technology ETF MTK announced that it had received a $108,328 payment from a class action settlement related to Juniper Networks, Inc. The SPDR has slightly more than 2.7 million shares outstanding, meaning that the payment will translate into just over 4 cents of gain per share.

Los Angeles, Calif.-based First Pacific Advisors is inviting its investors to spend a day at the beach with the firm. Specifically, the firm is holding its first Investor Day on Monday, May 21, at the Hotel Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica, Calif.

The Highland Credit Strategies Fund has changed its name to Pyxis Credit Strategies Fund.

Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $6.22 billion to $2.665 trillion in the week ended Feb. 22, the Investment Company Institute reported.

Total money market mutual fund assets increased by $6.22 billion to $2.665 trillion in the week ended Wednesday, Feb. 22, the Investment Company Institute reported.

Yorkville Capital Management said it created 11 sector indices and 4 composite indices that will track the performance of investment partnerships that get traded on public exchanges.

BlackRock’s former global head of exchange traded fund research, Deborah Fuhr, is back.

Cove Street Capital is sponsoring its first mutual fund, the CSC Small Cap Value Fund, which it begin managing on Jan. 27. The fund’s former investment manager was City National Asset Management, Inc.

Affluent retail investors are pulling assets away from traditional mutual funds in favor of exchange-traded funds and other alternatives, resulting in significant market consolidation, according to new findings by Cogent Research.

Exchange-traded fund developer Invesco PowerShares Capital Management plans to list two ETFs this Friday that will give investors access to what it calls “high-beta strategies,’’ covering the emerging and international developed markets.

Due to internal company limits on the number of exchange traded notes it can have circulating in securities market, Credit Suisse said Wednesday it has temporarily suspended issuance of the high volatility product VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short-Term ETNs.

Investors continued to steer money into stock mutual funds in February, though with much less enthusiasm. According to statistics released today by the Investment Company Institute, investors placed an estimated $1.04 billion into equity funds during the week ended Wednesday, Feb. 15, less than half the $3.64 billion they poured into the funds a week earlier.

Investors continued to steer money into stock mutual funds in February, though with much less enthusiasm. According to statistics released today by the Investment Company Institute, investors placed an estimated $1.04 billion into equity funds during the week ended Wednesday, Feb. 15, less than half the $3.64 billion they poured into the funds a week earlier.

RiverNorth Capital Management said its RiverNorth/DoubleLine Strategic Income Fund will be closed to new investors as of March 30.

FMR LLC, the parent of Boston-based Fidelity Investments, is looking to raise $250 million through a debt offering, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. But how the company plans to use the capital is anybody’s guess at this point.

Richard F. Aster, Jr., president of Aster Investment Management Company, Inc. and portfolio manager of Meridian Fund, Inc., passed away on Thursday, February 16, 2012.