Mutual funds

BlackRock’s iShares exchange-traded fund division has launched the iShares Floating Rate Note Fund (ticker: FLOT), its first floating rate fund.

Eaton Vance Management has launched the Eaton Vance Municipal Opportunities Fund, a fund that employs an opportunistic approach to investing in municipal obligations, with the aim of maximizing after-tax total return.

Enrollment in high-deductible health insurance plans that can be linked to health savings plans rose 14% in 2010, according to the trade association America’s Health Insurance Plans. And since 2008, enrollment has in such plans spiked by 87%.

The 1976 film “All the President’s Men” made famous the line "follow the money" and inspired an entire generation of muckraking journalists. Now some analysts at Standard & Poor's are saying their research shows this philosophy could also serve as a good starting point for identifying strong-performing mutual funds.

The fund will be sub-advised by four global advisory firms.

John Hancock Mutual Funds has launched three new fundamental equity funds, the John Hancock Fundamental Large Cap Core Fund, John Hancock Fundamental Large Cap Value Fund and John Hancock Fundamental All Cap Core Fund.

As investors become more worried about the U.S. economy, they seem to be pouring more money into bond funds and international equity funds and less money into domestic equity funds and ETFs, according to Strategic Insight, a business intelligence provider to the worldwide fund industry.

Highland Funds has merged the Highland Floating Rate Advantage Fund and the Highland Floating Rate Fund into the Highland Floating Rate Opportunities Fund, which offers better, daily liquidity features.

Dallas-based Highland Funds' Long/Short Healthcare Fund this week received a five-star rating from Morningstar which ranks the mutual fund among the top 10% of funds in the healthcare category.

CHICAGO -- Seeking to make it easier for financial planners and investors to analyze the vast mutual fund universe, Morningstar will soon launch forward-looking, analyst-driven fund ratings.

Seeking to make it easier for financial planners and investors to analyze the vast mutual fund universe, Morningstar announced Thursday that it would soon launch forward-looking, analyst-driven fund ratings.

Long-term mutual funds reaped $2.83 billion in inflows in the week ended June 1, the Investment Company Institute said.

Two affiliates of Palmer Square Capital Management have launched new mutual funds. The funds are the Nuance Concentrated Value Fund from Nuance Investments and the Tortoise MLP & Pipeline Fund from Tortoise Capital Advisors.

Putnam Investments has won a sub-advisor mandate for two fixed income funds from Mackenzie Investments with $1.75 billion in assets under management. The two funds are the Mackenzie Sentinel Corporate Bond Fund and Mackenzie Sentinel Registered North American Corporate Bond Fund.

Matthews International Capital Management has launched the Matthews China Small Companies Fund.

Investors should be keenly aware of the major factors that can diminish long-term returns.

Although the unemployment rate in the U.S. is 9%, three-quarters of broker-dealers and registered investment advisors plan to hire in the next 12 months, and they plan to boost their staff by an average of 30%, Fidelity Investments found in a survey.

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Outflows from equity funds totaled $25 million in the week ended May 18, the Investment Company Institute said.

Global X Funds has launched the Global X Canada Preferred ETF, an exchange-traded fund that targets Canadian companies that issue preferred stock. The fund tracks the Solactive Canada Preferred Stock Index.