Mutual funds

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.

NEW YORK - Despite the terrible news about most stocks and mutual funds, investors should heed Sophocles' warning and "don't kill the messenger."

Money market funds took in an additional $11.30 billion in the week ended Jan. 28, the Investment Company Institute reported, for total assets of $3.904 trillion.

The Federal Reserve’s commercial paper holdings fell by more than $100 billion last week, with the balance sheet standing at $1.93 trillion, in a sign that the capital markets are returning to normal and that companies may be returning to the private sector for short-term financing.

State Street Corp. said assets under administration serviced by its private-equity fund team increased 60% last year.

David Corkins certainly has a knack for timing. He left the helm of Janus Capital’s flagship Janus Fund at the end of 2007 and has waited out the financial crisis the past year.

Fixed income mutual fund managers and other investors are beginning to move out of Treasuries into higher-risk debt instruments, including junk bonds, and that is good news, BusinessWeek reports. While it may not immediately spur the economy, it is at least helping to change the highly risk-averse mindset of retail and institutional investors alike.

In response to a report in The Boston Globe that Fidelity Investments is exploring a sale, chairman Edward C. “Ned” Johnson issued a rare response denouncing the rumor.

Legg Mason lost a record $1.49 million in the third quarter, down from profits of $155 million in the third quarter of 2007. Revenues also plummeted, by 40%.Total assets fell by 17% to $698 billion, and its flagship Legg Mason Value Trust fund fell 52% in 2008.Legg will close about one-fifth of its funds this year.

T. Rowe Price reported that its fourth-quarter profit fell 87% to $24.3 million, or 9 cents a share, from $190.7 million, or 68 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2007.This fell substantially lower than analysts’ consensus of 24 cents a share.Revenue fell 30% to $416 million in the quarter from $598 million a year earlier, advisory fees fell 35% to $330 million, and assets under management declined by 31% to $276.3 billion. Investors redeemed $2.2 billion from T. Rowe Price’s mutual funds in the fourth quarter.

DST Systems reported third-quarter net earnings of $70.6 million, or $1.43 a share, up 10.8% from $63.7 million, or 92 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2007.The company attributed much of the quarter’s strength to the sale of 730,000 shares in State Street worth $25.4 million. DST acquired the stock when it sold one of its subsidiaries to State Street; the firm still holds 10.6 million shares.The sale offset a $27.4 million decline in DST’s investment portfolio, which the company said it did not expect would be temporary.However, the number of mutual fund client accounts that DST services fell by 3.8 million in the third quarter, and revenues themselves declined slightly to $564.3 million from $577.4 million a year earlier.