Mutual funds

After dropping 38.9% in 2008, slightly worse than the S&P 500’s 37% decline, the average stock mutual fund is up 9.9% year to date, quite a bit better than the index’s 5.3% return, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Americans are increasingly worried about their preparedness for retirement, The Hartford found in a survey. Thirty-four percent were either “extremely” or “very” worried about their ability to save for retirement, and 56% said they feared they would have to cut back on their contributions.

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Although there have been reports of one-third of employers cutting back on or eliminating 401(k) matches, for the most part, they have continued to add other features to the plans to increase participation and investment rates, Charles Schwab found. And that has helped most workers stay the retirement savings course.

NEW YORK -- Investors tend to stay quiet about financial products they don't understand as long as the profits keep coming in, but when the tide goes out and profits fall, they want answers.

A recent cartoon in The New Yorker surely sums up many retirement investors' feelings toward their financial advisers: It depicts them being sacrificed to a volcano.

Before the bottom fell out of the markets last year, most asset management firms thought they already had robust risk management processes in place. Now they're not so sure.

After consenting to a $40 million fine by the Securities and Exchange Commission for inflating the value of mortgage-backed securities in its Ultra Short Opportunities Fund, Evergreen Investment Management is now being investigated by the Massachusetts Securities Division for valuations in another mutual fund and a variable annuity.

Shares in publicly traded mutual fund management companies have soared 54% this year, compared to approximately 5% for the Standard & Poor's 500 index, but that growth may be about to slow down as fund companies catch up on paying expenses they have been putting off, USA TODAY reports.

Investors continued to gradually move out of the safety of money market funds and into the equity markets, as total assets of money market mutual funds dropped $16.33 billion to $3.747 trillion for the week ending June 10, according to the Investment Company Institute.

State Street Corp. and Vanguard Group are reeling at the annoucement of BlackRock Global Investors, the $13.5 billion merger between BlackRock and Barclays's asset management arm.

Equity funds took in inflows for the 12th straight week, netting $4.63 billion in the week ended June 3, the Investment Company Institute said. In the previous week, they netted $1.59 billion.

ALPS Fund Services is planning to offer five commodity equity exchange-traded funds. They are: Agricultural Producers ETF, Energy Producers ETF, Industrial Metals Products ETF, Precious Metals Products ETF and Commodity Producers Composite ETF.

Mutual fund managers are moving back into the stock market, finally putting cash they have been holding onto for more than a year back to work, MarketWatch reports.

Even though their financial health may have been seriously impaired by the economic downturn, most couples are not in agreement when it comes to their retirement plans, Fidelity found in a survey of 502 married couples between the ages of 45 and 72. To qualify, they had to have household income of at least $75,000 and investable assets of $100,000 or more.

Affluent investors' confidence increased in May for the third consecutive month, according to a survey by Spectrem Group.

BlackRock is reportedly the lead bidder for Barclays’ fund unit, and could pay more than $12 billion for the company, which has $1.5 trillion under management. BlackRock manages $2.81 trillion.

Grail Advisors is planning to offer four actively managed exchange-traded funds that will the first to use a single-manager approach.

IndexIQ has introduced an exchange-traded fund that will seek to replicate global macro and emerging markets hedge fund strategies.