Mutual funds

Fidelity on Tuesday began the second phase of job layoffs which started last year. In this phase, 1,700 people will lose their jobs.

Total money market mutual fund assets rose by $2.38 billion in the week ended Feb. 4, for a total of $3.906 trillion, the Investment Company Institute reported.

With the average target-date fund down 17% in 2008, investors might think twice about what has been one of the best-selling fund categories of the past few years, MarketWatch reports.

With few corporate bonds being traded these days, fixed income mutual fund managers are having a very hard time running their funds, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Financial planners are spending a lot of time these days trying to allay their clients’ fears, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Anyone who works with a financial adviser most likely has money in the stock market and, therefore, has experienced steep losses in the past year.

With the seven-day simple yield on money market funds now a mere 50 basis points, investors are beginning to look for other places to park their money. In the latest week for which figures are available, investors pulled $7.82 billion out of money market funds, iMoneyNet reported.

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Pre-Refunded Municipal Index ETF.

Morningstar has unveiled new research and ratings for the 3,000 mutual funds offered in Europe and Asia. With this new service, Morningstar is now offering written analysis on more than 5,000 funds. Worldwide, Morningstar tracks performance and operational data on 110,000 funds globally.

The Federal Reserve is extending a number of liquidity programs set to end on April 30 through Oct. 30 “in light of continuing substantial strains in financial markets.”

Vanguard is entering the UK mutual fund business for the first time and has chosen Tom Rampulla, director of sales for Vanguard Advisor Services in the U.S. to head up the unit, since it will initially focus on selling through financial advisers.

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities has barred three former Merrill Lynch brokers for allegedly enabling Millennium Partners to place more than 25,000 market-timing trades. Further, the three—Christopher Chung, Kevin Brunnock and William Savino— must pay $1.15 million in civil penalties.

Mutual fund prospectus provider NewRiver is suing Morningstar for using Internet espionage to steal information from its patent-protected system.

Charles Schwab Corp. said it plans to cut 500 to 600 jobs this quarter in its effort to contain costs.

Northern Trust Selects Browne as New CIO

With other safe investments paying so little these days, it's hard to ignore the glowing rates that some insurance companies are guaranteeing on long-term fixed deferred annuities.

Remember when markets were rising, profits were strong and fund distribution was all about having a large wholesaling staff, generous compensation programs to incent wholesalers and support staff to track sales and calculate payouts?

Calls for greater oversight of the investment advisory profession continued last week, with key congressional leaders pushing the industry to come up with changes designed to prevent future fraud schemes similar to that of the Madoff case.

Investors Sticking With Their 401(k)s

Strong performance and a conservative approach has enabled American Century Investments to outperform some of its competitors, despite market conditions that cost it 31.4% of its assets under management last year.

Here's a word to the wise for any executives of publicly traded companies who may be about to be visited by Portfolio Manager Roger Vogel: Don't roll out the red carpet and offer him a slick, well-rehearsed tour of a spotless and smoothly humming facility.