Mutual funds

Stocks entered a new bull market in March, and the S&P 500 could rise an additional 10% by the end of the year, Abby Joseph Cohen, senior investment strategist at Goldman Sachs, said on CNBC.

While 46% of plan sponsors have or are planning to decrease 401(k) matches for rank-and-file employees, budgets are increasing for 401(a) profit-sharing plans, usually offered to higher-paid workers, Diversified Investment Advisors found in a survey of 279 employers with 1,000 or more employees.

Labaton Sucharow has filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against ProShares, regarding one of its inverse leveraged exchange-traded funds.

The RBC Consumer Attitudes and Spending Household (CASH) Index rose by a sharp 15.1 points in August to 37.5, reversing a slide of the previous two months.

Long-term mutual funds took in $12.53 billion for the week ended July 29, the 20th straight week of inflows, according to data from the Investment Company Institute. Net purchases to equity and bond funds over the past five months are nearly $200 billion.

De Beers is considering offering a diamond exchange-traded fund to boost interest in the gems, since prices and production are both down, IndexUniverse.com reports.

Individual investors are regaining confidence in the stock market and increasingly taking investing into their own hands, a survey of 450 retail investors by online broker Zecco found.

Mutual, pension and hedge fund managers have been investing large quantities of cash in the market in recent weeks, and while the pace of their buying has been slowing, it appears to indicate their faith in a continued rally, Reuters reports.

Five years in the making, it appears that Strong Funds investors who were harmed by mutual fund market timing may soon receive their share of the $154 million settlement.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has partnered with Delta Data Software to add enhancements to its mutual fund database used by broker/dealers and other distributors to retrieve important information.

Fidelity Investments has joined the growing chorus of fund companies, brokerages and regulators warning investors about potential outsized losses in leveraged exchange-traded funds due to the effect of compounding.

Nearly one in five advisers think the financial crisis will last another five years, and 33% think the American way of life has been irrevocably changed for years to come, a survey of advisers from firms of all sizes by Phoenix Marketing International found.

Natixis Global Associates has introduced a multi-strategy, absolute-return fund in partnership with AlphaSimplex Group, the Natixis ASG Diversifying Strategies Fund.

Despite this year’s arduous business environment, independent RIAs remain optimistic, according to the results of the 2009 Charles Schwab RIA Benchmarking Study. In fact, 84% of advisers surveyed expect to grow moderately or faster over the next five years, with 35% predicting aggressive growth and 49% seeing growth at a more modest pace looking forward.

A full 66% of investors do not expect the economy to improve until next year-or even later-and only 34% peg improvement for this year, online brokerage TradeKing found in a survey of 3,000 of its customers.

DST Retirement Hires Mineweaser as Director

SEC Investor Advisor Committee To Examine Fund Disclosure

The recent drop in financial markets has rekindled the demand for safer, conservative financial products like stable-value funds.

Sometimes we seek out opportunities for change. Other times change is thrust upon us. Market conditions in the past 24 months have produced seismic shifts in the mutual fund industry, and several business drivers have emerged that will shape our industry's future. As asset managers, distributors, suppliers and others evaluate their next steps, these demands will drive strategies and shape new solutions.

Financial advisers have been going independent or switching wirehouses in record numbers since the economic crisis began at the end of 2007, and brokerages are scrambling for ways to get them and their loyal clients to come back.