Mutual funds

PIMCO is trimming its exposure to the debt of financial services companies along with high-yield bonds, apparently believing a correction is in the wings.

BlackRock reported second quarter earnings of $218 million, a 20% decrease from the $274 million it earned a year ago. Revenue also fell, by 26%, to $1.03 billion.

The board of directors of Freddie Mac has named Charles E. Haldeman, Jr. chief executive officer and a member of the board of directions. Until June 30, Haldeman was chairman of Putnam Investments, and previously president and CEO of the firm.

Legg Mason reported earnings of $50.1 million, or 35 cents a share, for the quarter ended June 30, its first fiscal quarter for 2010, compared with a loss of $36.1 million, or 26 cents a share, in the comparable period of 2008. The company handily beat the consensus of earnings of 21 cents a share.

Fixed annuity sales jumped 74% to a record $35.6 billion in the first quarter, according to LIMRA.

Second quarter earnings of companies in the S&P 500 may be down 35.2%, but the results are not as bad as analysts had predicted, Investor’s Business Daily reports. Thus, many fund managers and analysts are expecting growth to return in the fourth quarter and continue into the first half of 2010.

Eighty-four percent of financial advisers have had a client who either themselves or whose family member has suffered from Alzheimer’s, and they are looking for resources to help those clients, Fidelity Investments found in a survey of 350 advisers.

Employers are increasingly looking to add index funds, exchange-traded funds or other low-cost selections to their 401(k) plans, according to a survey by Hewitt Associates. Seventeen percent said they are likely to replace at least one of their actively managed funds with an index fund this year, up from 8% who said so a year ago.

The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation released a report by Harvard Law School Professor John C. Coates recommending that mutual fund investors who hold less than 2% of a fund’s shares not be taxed on capital gains until they sell those shares. The current tax scheme puts U.S. funds at a competitive disadvantage, Coates says.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin is investigating the sales materials of fund companies that sell leveraged exchange-traded funds.

Janus Replaces Gary Black With Temporary CEO

Working with elderly clients can be challenging, but by networking with the right contacts and involving clients' heirs, some advisers are developing a lucrative and self-feeding business-and fund companies that can provide them with retirement income products that rely on capital preservation rather than aggressive investments will come out the winners.

Of course, it cannot be proved that hedge funds contributed to the financial crisis, as the Department of the Treasury said last week. However, it's more than likely that the top-performing hedge fund managers, those earning a staggering $1 billion a year in 2006, 2007 and 2008, were invested in the mortgage-backed and leveraged instruments that brought the economy to its knees.

Bond, Stock Funds Reap $136B in 2Q09, Best Sales Since First Quarter of 2007

NEW YORK -- An investors' advocacy group is challenging the Obama Administration and Congress to do more for the needs of average investors.

Brokers who offer advice to investors may be held to the same fiduciary standards as investment advisers if legislation proposed by the Obama Administration is passed by Congress.

hedge funds regulation crisis sec securities and exchange commission

The plaintiffs’ attorney in the mutual fund fee case heading to the Supreme Court has somehow obtained e-mails between two executives at Harris Associates, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A decline in world equity markets of 4.9% between July 2 and July 9 has forced investors to sale back their risk taking and return to recession-proof stocks, according to Merrill Lynch's monthly survey of fund managers.

The mutual fund industry will be a shadow of its former self in just five years time, if the findings of a new study by Novarica pan out.