Mutual funds

The Baltimore-based fund company reported a 27% increased in profits from a year earlier to $194.6 million, or 72 cents a share as net revenue rose 23% to $682.4 million.

The New York-based money manager saw profits rise 34% from a year earlier to $568 million, or $2.89 per share as assets under management increased 8.5% from a year earlier and 2.5% from the previous quarter to $3.648 trillion.

Equity funds net $834 million.

SiVest Group, investment advisor to the Firsthand Funds, has launched the Firsthand Technology Value Fund, a closed-end, publicly traded fund.

State Street Global Advisors has launched the SPDR Nuveen S&P High Yield Municipal Bond Exchange Traded Fund, developed in conjunction with Nuveen Asset Management, which will serve as sub-advisor. The fund seeks to track the performance of the S&P Municipal Yield Index.

Vanguard's Jack Bogle argues for more competition.

Long-term mutual funds had $8.9 billion in inflows in the week ended April 6, the Investment Company Institute said Wednesday.

“Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.” Just eight words that have been repeated enough in mutual fund marketing materials for investors to tune out their message; or perhaps they have chosen to ignore the most important of those eight words, the word NOT.

They are the Preferred and Income Securities and the Focused Equity funds.

GoodHaven Capital Management has launched the GoodHaven Fund, a no-load value fund with a go-anywhere mandate that includes fixed income and cash.

Destra Capital Management has expanded its lineup of funds that emphasize income and seek to minimize downside risk with the launch of the Preferred and Income Securities Fund, sub-advised by Flaherty and Crumrine, and the Focused Equity Fund, sub-advised by WestEnd Advisors.

Prudential Investments has launched three new fixed income funds: the Prudential Floating Rate Income Fund, the Prudential Absolute Return Bond Fund and the Prudential Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency Fund.

Sixty-five percent of Americans do not know what a hedge fund is, according to a survey by Thesis Fund Management.

Franklin Templeton, Loomis Sayles and State Street will be the sub-advisors.

Tax-exempt money market funds saw only moderate outflows as investors yanked a mere $252.5 million in the week ended April 4, causing total net assets to dip slightly to $319.05 billion, according to the Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet.com.

Genworth Financial Wealth Management has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer six asset allocation funds that will be sub-advised by Franklin Templeton, Loomis Sayles and State Street Global Advisors.

Sub-advised fund assets topped $1.7 trillion in 2010, an all-time high, Financial Research Corp. said.

Equity funds net $1.2 billion.

A New York judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit against State Street as the sponsor of a mutual fund, saying that even though the mutual fund misrepresented its risks, investors were not harmed. That's because the fund correctly calculated its net asset value.

But $1.42 billion is redeemed from equity funds.