Mutual funds

Two leading confidence gauges were released on Tuesday. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose to 52.9 in December, from an upwardly revised 50.6 in November.

With the Putnam Voyager Fund up 65.6% in 2009, ranking in the top 2% of large-cap growth funds, The Boston Globe has named manager Nick Thakore Boston Capital Fund Manager of the Year. The fund has handily outpaced its benchmark Russell 1000 Growth Index, up 39.3%, by more than 26 percentage points.

Americans are divided on their outlook for the economy in 2010, with 32% thinking the status quo will prevail, 28% expecting things to get worse, and 29% hoping for improvement, according to a survey by Country Financial.

When mutual fund investors receive their year-end statements, most will be uplifted by the fact that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is up 24.9% for the year through Dec. 24, according to Lipper data.

Tiger Woods’ approval rating may sink even lower than its current 40%, once stock and mutual fund investors in companies he endorses realize they have lost $12 billion since his extramarital scandal broke, according to estimates by researchers at the University of California, Davis.

Fidelity investors can now electronically transfer funds from their bank accounts to the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, making this the first national donor-advised fund program to make e-transfers possible.

The House Ways and Means Committee has introduced a bill that would streamline and modernize the tax code for mutual funds and their shareholders. For the past 50 years, the code has been adjusted piecemeal, and an entire review of the rules hasn’t occurred for more than 20 years.

State Street Corp. has agreed with Intesa Sanpaolo, a Milan banking company, to buy its securities services business for $1.87 billion in cash.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. has announced the purchase of Portsmouth Financial Systems, a developer of modeling and analytics for structured credit transactions, so that it can give clients and investors more transparency in structured credit portfolios.

While emerging markets were only recently seen as an exotic investment, their promise for high returns, growing stability and increasingly influential impact on the rest of the globe has caused mutual fund and pension managers to reassess their importance, The Wall Street Journal reports in a story titled: “A Bigger Risk Than Emerging Markets: Staying Out.”

Mutual funds took in net sales for the 40th week in a row, bringing the sales streak to a full 10 months totaling $400 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Besides being one of the most famous and successful fund managers in the history of the mutual fund business, Bill Gross reached another historic milestone on Dec. 17, when the PIMCO Total Return Fund he runs topped $202.5 billion in assets—making it the biggest mutual fund ever.

Fidelity Investments has expanded the investment options on its Advisors 401(k) platform, in an effort to help its advisors boost their share of the advisor-sold market.

Carnegie Investment Bank AB, a Stockholm-based independent financial institution, has decided to let go of its asset management business and transfer ownership to investment companies Altor Equity Partners and Bure.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed securities fraud charges against an Austin, Texas investment advisor and two of his businesses alleging he conducted a “multi-million dollar scam” that used former professional football players to promote its offerings.

The Vanguard Group said it plans to introduce its first actively managed equity fund in five years, the Valley Forge, Pa., company announced Monday.

In an effort to alleviate investor anxiety, fixed-income guru Bill Gross has taken over daily responsibility of four of Pacific Investment Management Co.’s close-end bond funds.

Jay Peroni had been a financial advisor for over seven years when a client asked him a question he could not answer: “Can I expect God to bless my investments if I’m investing in things that oppose his word?”

New York-based American International Group Inc. scored a victory in California Superior Court after a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a financial planner.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is adjusting fees for some transactions as part of its requirement to keep collections stable.