Mutual funds

Despite the new rules that the SEC imposed on money market funds in January – or perhaps because of them – managers are challenged to find an adequate supply of investments. The scarcity of debt with a maturity of less than seven days, combined with low yields, is pushing money market fund managers into areas of the fixed income and cash management markets they previously would not seek out, The Wall Street Journal reports this morning.

The fixed-income trend is leading the bumper inflows for bond-heavy fund families, while investors continue to punish American Funds for not being “bear-proof.”

Fixed-income funds held their siren-like draw for investors, contributing largely to long-term mutual funds’ $16.8 billion in inflows in August, according to a Morningstar analysis.

State Street Global Advisors has launched a global natural resources exchange-traded fund.

Retail investors ignored the pullback in the state and local government debt market last week, committing the third-heaviest slug of new money to municipal bond mutual funds this year.

Mutual fund managers - not their hedge fund counterparts - are the original alpha males (and females).

The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to revise its approach to circuit breakers on the nation's equities exchanges, to include a "careful review" of price bands that limit how far up or down the price of a stock can move at any given time.

The class-action lawsuit initiated by Third Avenue Management against the Reserve Primary Fund is only just beginning and will undoubtedly make for salacious headlines in the months ahead.

State Street Corp., known for its passive asset management, may soon expand its small active management business.

Vanguard has launched eight index mutual funds and nine exchange-traded funds based on Standard & Poor's domestic stock benchmarks.

The biggest winners of the week were taxable non-government funds, reaping $9.91 billion.

Assets of money market funds increased by $10.55 billion in the week ended Wednesday, Sept. 8, bringing total assets to $2.839 trillion, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.

State Street Corp., known for its passive asset management, may soon expand its small active management business.

Vanguard has launched eight index mutual funds and nine exchange-traded funds based on Standard & Poor's domestic stock benchmarks.

Vanguard has launched eight index mutual funds and nine exchange-traded funds based on S&P domestic stock benchmarks.

In a newly expanded role, Reiss will lead a specialized sales organization to help drive growth of the company’s U.S. mutual funds and 529 college savings plans

U.S. stock funds bleed $7.6 billion in the latest week; foreign stock funds lose $1.9 billion.

Investors continue to take money out of stock mutual funds, with outflows nearly doubling in each of the past two weeks.

The 10-minute, quick-hit survey rates asset management companies on how well prepared they are to introduce new products and enter new geographical markets.

The credit rating agency is seeking input from market participants on a new five-point rating scale that indicates how the funds might perform during market duress.