Mutual funds

Besides supporting four money market funds with exposure to structured investment vehicles with $420 million in capital of its own, Legg Mason has signed a one-year renewal with a bank to support $355 million in SIV securities. As of Nov. 30, the par value of SIV exposure in the funds was $2.8 billion, down from $10 billion as of Oct. 31, 2007.

Fidelity Investments announced Tuesday it is reopening two of its largest funds, Contrafund and Low-Priced Stock Fund, to new investments, effective Dec. 16.

There was a time that the highflying world of hedge fund managers appeared to stratospherically surpass that of mutual fund managers. After all, some of the top hedge fund managers have averaged annual salaries of $250 million in recent years, with $1 billion paydays not uncommon for top stars.

Finance and technology stocks have put the Fidelity Magellan fund in a worse position than its benchmark, the Standard & Poor’s 500, and even the fund’s manager says he’s disappointed, Dow Jones reports.

Be it large-, medium- or small-cap, value or growth, there are buying opportunities galore in the stock market, according to veteran Lord Abbett value manager Robert Fetch. “I am seeing valuations I haven’t seen in decades, across the capitalization spectrum,” Fetch told Barron’s.

CIBC announced Friday that it has finally settled 2004 charges that former trader Paul Flynn permitted hedge funds to market time mutual funds.

Mutual Funds Have Bled $2.5 Trillion Since May

Putnam Selects Farrell as Head of Equity Trading

Don't believe the retirement income hype.

The signs are clear, but few firms are making decisions that will benefit them in the long term. The financial crisis is prompting firms to feel forced to react and make changes to their short-term and long-term strategies.

The $600 million in new assets that Horizon Cash Management captured in the third quarter could be a sign of things to come for the Chicago company and other cash managers.

Fund Fees Expected to Tumble By $38 Billion by 2012

Slowly but steadily, the Securities and Exchange Commission continues on the long journey toward adopting international tax and accounting standards, with the recent release of its long-anticipated roadmap.

Mutual funds had $9.5 trillion in assets as of Oct. 31, a full $2.5 trillion, or 21% less, than their year-to-date $12 trillion under management peak at the end of May, Lipper data shows. Since the beginning of the year, when mutual funds had $11.7 trillion under management, assets have fallen 19%.

The $600 million in new assets that Horizon Cash Management captured in the third quarter could be a sign of things to come for the Chicago company and other cash managers.

First the good news. The average 401(k) plan balance is down only 14% this year to $68,000 from $79,000 in 2007, according to Hewitt Associates. And since the precipitous decline in the stock market of the past few months, only 4% of participants have decided to stop contributing.

Fees on actively managed mutual funds in the U.S. could fall as much as 26%, or $38 billion, by 2012 due to investors’ renewed preference for fixed income and passive investments, Bloomberg reports, citing a report from Boston Consulting Group.

Waddell & Reed is planning to first offer employees voluntary layoff packages next month, and depending on how that goes, will hand out pink slips the following week, the Kansas City Star reports. The goal is to reduce payroll costs by 15%.

Morningstar has acquired the business operations of InvestData of South Africa, a fund data provider, for undisclosed terms.

More than 110,000 people working in finance in the U.S. have lost their jobs so far this year, but that could nearly double to more than 200,000 in the final weeks of the year, the Anniston Star reports.