Mutual funds

Fidelity Institutional has formed a new centralized client experience organization to improve service for registered investment advisors, broker/dealers, traders and family offices.

NEW YORK -- Experts predict equities and equity mutual funds could have a double-digit rally later this year -- if investors respond as they should and flee a future correction in the bond market.

Investors continue to stuff municipal bond mutual funds with cash, supporting bond prices even as by some measures they are nearly as expensive as they have ever been.

9% of Finance Execs Planning to Hire Soon

Direxion has launched six new long and short exchange-traded funds tracking BRIC, India and the semiconductor industry, bringing the total number of leveraged ETFs it offers to 34.

This recovery is for real, according to TrimTabs. As cause for the optimism, the research firm points to a 3% increase in wages and salaries from a year ago and a 9% spike in online job postings. Year-to-date, job postings have surged a surprising 18%.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced in a pair of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it plans to introduce a pair of exchange-traded funds.

Advent Software has acquired Norwegian software provider Goya AS. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Through this acquisition, Advent now offers the product Tradex, which is complementary to Advent’s existing products and is already implemented at a significant number of Advent clients in Europe and the Middle East.

Long-term mutual funds took in $12.75 billion in the week ended March 3, marking the 51st straight week for inflows, which now total $500 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Reserve Management submitted court documents Thursday denying that it, founder Bruce Bent or his son Bruce Bent II intentionally tried to mislead investors in the flagship $62 billion Reserve Primary Fund into believing the now-defunct fund that broke the buck was solvent. The defendants also requested a jury trial.

An upstart Washington, D.C., based online financial management firm has found a unique way to market to low and middle income individuals:

Long-term mutual funds took in $12.75 billion in the week ended March 3, marking the 51st straight week for inflows, which now total $500 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

After the stock market wiped away so many investors' wealth over the past two years, and amid disagreements among economists whether the recovery is sustainable, investors remain on sidelines—even though stocks are up 69% from their March 9, 2009 lows.

Assets held in domestic exchange-traded funds increased last month, but couldn’t quite keep pace with the Standard & Poor’s 500.

Bucking their overall skepticism or outright distrust of financial services companies, 90% of Americans trust the advice their financial planners have been giving them amid the financial turmoil of the past two years, according to the First Command Financial Behaviors Index.

Do Buyers Prefer Passive or Active?

While financial advisers have been relying on internal wholesalers more heavily since the financial downturn, they are also finding those contacts not as accessible or responsive as they would like, according to the latest installment in Financial Research Corp.’s Advisor Insight Series, “Wholesaler Effectiveness.” FRC concluded that fund companies may be underestimating and spreading this valuable resource too thinly.

Folio Institutional, a division of FOLIOfn, has teamed up with Alliance Benefit Group Carolinas to offer a turn-key, web-based 401(k) platform that offers transparency, simplicity, low cost and is customizable. It includes custody, trading, recordkeeping and administration, and is available to advisers for just 95 basis points.

Financial planners and advisers hope that by boosting marketing they can expand their practices this year, according to a survey released by TD Ameritrade Institutional.

Investors continue to stuff municipal bond mutual funds with cash, supporting bond prices even as by some measures they are nearly as expensive as they have ever been.