Mutual funds

The Federal Reserve has allowed more companies to take part in its program to add more liquidity to money market mutual funds.

Total assets of money market mutual funds increased by $54.67 billion to reach $3.895 trillion for the week ending January 7, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Fidelity Investments Canada has unveiled nine Fidelity Private Investment Pools aimed at the high-net-worth market. The offerings cover a wide array of asset classes and are said to be institutional-grade.

The Investment Company Institute, along with the UK's Investment Management Association and Australia's Investment and Financial Services Association, has released a combined statement in support of prudent regulatory oversight of short selling.

After a surprisingly bad year, international funds—which sank an average of 45% in 2008—could be ripe for big gains later this year, some managers say.

Managers of funds at Royce, Artisan and First Pacific Advisors took the three highest honors in Morningstar’s annual Fund Manager of the Year Award, for domestic stock, international stock and fixed income, respectively.

T. Rowe Price has launched the Strategic Income Fund, a new offering that will invest in 12 asset classes to achieve high income and some asset growth, with 80% or more of its assets invested in income-producing securities.

Rather than bemoan the market’s abysmal performance, investors’ skepticism and the fact that their own revenues declined an average of 40% in 2008, financial advisers overwhelmingly are viewing the economic crisis as a time to strengthen client relationships, SEI found. And most believe they will be able to expand their client base, with 51% expecting the market to rebound as early as the second quarter.

Standard Chartered’s Hong Kong division has agreed to reimburse $320,000 to 1,000 investors who were allegedly disadvantaged by the firm’s permitting Stone Castle, a Millennium Partners subsidiary, to market time 24 mutual funds managed by ACM Funds and Scudder Global Opportunities Funds.

The average U.S. stock fund declined 37.9% in 2008, slightly worse than the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 33.8% loss. It was the Dow’s worst year since 1931, when it declined by more than 50%. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 37%, its worst performance since 1937.

Fidelity Investments has named former Evergreen Investments Chief Executive Officer Peter Cieszko to become the president of Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company.

More than 40 inverse exchange-traded funds run by Rydex Investments and ProFunds are passing on sizable capital gains to investors. For those who hold those funds in taxable accounts, the taxes they will owe will range from 50% to even as high as 80% of assets, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Paul Mazzilli, formerly executive director and head of the exchange-traded fund research team at Morgan Stanley, has joined IndexIQ as senior advisor, in charge of developing products for high-net-worth investors.

Sponsors of 401(k) plans worry that investors will either invest too heavily in risky equities, or too conservatively in money market funds, but in 2007, at least, target-date funds allocated investors’ money wisely across the board, Vanguard found.

Long-term U.S. government funds yielded 22.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008, for a three-month performance of 27.1% year to date, according to data from Morningstar Inc., as investors flocked to safety.

Neuberger Berman Names Non-Executive Chair, CEO

The Securities and Exchange Commission has received an emergency court order to halt a suspected Ponzi scheme targeted to Haitian-American investors.

SEC May Investigate Reserve Fund

Among my predictions for 2008 was the subpoenaing of Eliot Spitzer's e-mails to prove his smear campaign against New York State Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. And we all know what happened to the disgraced former governor of New York.

While the news about the economy and the markets continues to be bad, some in the business are taking heart.