Mutual funds

Fairholme Funds has launched the Fairholme Allocation Fund, which will seek long-term returns from capital appreciation and income by investing in equities, fixed income, cash and cash equivalent securities.

Nuveen Investments on Dec. 31 completed its acquisition of FAF Advisors, with FAF’s parent company, U.S. Bancorp, receiving a 9.5% stake in Nuveen, plus cash consideration in exchange for investment management of the FAF mutual funds.

On the ninth day before Christmas, money invested in U.S.-listed exchange traded funds and exchange-traded products crossed $1 trillion for the first time. The total actually was $1.027 trillion, with $887.2 billion in ETFs and $115.5 billion in ETPs, as tabulated by BlackRock's Global ETF Research and Implementation Strategy Team.

2010 was a year of many challenges. The May 6 Flash Crash and the fallout of the December 2009 arrest of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff kept investors away from stock funds. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed. Mutual funds and their sales intermediaries were charged with more accurately calculating the cost-basis of original investments in securities, and funds prepared for the Jan. 1, 2011 XBRL deadline.

MFS Investment Management has historically been best known for its bond funds—but it’s the firm’s Municipal High-Income Fund (MMHYX) that stands out as a gem of consistency.

The tax-free money market fund industry continues to shrink rapidly, squeezing what had been a major source of short-term credit for municipalities and arguably leading to higher borrowing costs for state and local governments.

Both stock and bond funds saw net withdrawals last week.

Investors withdrew $8.48 billion from long-term funds in the week ended Dec. 15, the Investment Company Institute said Wednesday. The lion’s share of those withdrawals came from bond funds, which lost $8.62 billion. The week earlier, bond funds had outflows of $1.66 billion.

Investors continued to ferry cash out of their municipal bond mutual funds at historic rates last week as a tumultuous sell-off sowed fear among buyers.

Rollovers into traditional IRAs occur evenly across all age groups and play a significant role in the growth of IRA assets, according to research by the Investment Company Institute and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, released Thursday.

More Americans plan to consider financial resolutions when the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31, a new Fidelity Investments survey says. The annual study found that 42% of Americans plan to make financial New Year’s resolutions, up from 35% last year. Results of this year’s telephone survey included 1,006 adults ages 18 and older.

Assets in money market mutual fund assets decreased by $33.2 billion, in the week ended Dec. 15, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.

Deutsche Bank launched two ETFs for values based investors this week. Both will directly invest in a portfolio of securities, rather than rely on swaps, or “synthetic” index replication.

Equity funds lost $1.4 billion, while bonds had outflows of $1.66 billion.

Start-ups are benefitting from stronger industry inflows and increasing investor tolerance for risk.

Investors pulled $4 billion out of long-term stock funds in November, according to Morningstar. Biggest loser: Muni-bond funds. Biggest winner: money market funds.

PHOENIX-Investors' renewed respect for risk management and interest in global opportunities will drive an entire new wave of index innovation, speakers at Investment Management Network's "Super Bowl of Indexing" predicted last week.

Index will generate resources for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Dow Jones has partnered with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to launch the Dow Jones Global Fund 50 Index to help the Global Fund’s cause, with a portion of the revenues generated from licensing the index going to the fund.

And money market funds saw $32.53 billion in inflows.