Mutual funds

With the dollar beaten down - 7% against the euro and 6% against the yen so far this year - fund companies are offering investors the opportunity to invest in exchange-traded funds that invest in foreign currencies, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Hedge funds may be coming off their worst first quarter in history, including, surprisingly enough, a poor showing in the energy sector, but not everyone is doing poorly.

Having already raised more than $850,000 this year, Mutual Funds Against Cancer is aiming to top $1 million, all of which will be donated to the Center for Applied Cancer Sciences (“CACS”) at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

NEW YORK - Days before the European Union celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Euro last week, Dechert LLP held a widely popular seminar here on the how-to's of Undertakings for Collective Investment Trusts, or UCITS, which have been growing at a rapid pace not only on the Continent, but also in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

Asset management executives should have no illusion about the direction Sen. Barack Obama would take financial services policy if he were elected president.

WASHINGTON-On the presidential campaign trail, Sen. John McCain's financial services agenda has hardly been front-and-center.

As Big Brown was preparing last week to get ready for his big day Saturday at the Belmont Stakes, his owners and financiers are already counting their predicted earnings, as well as forging ahead with the $100 million seed capital for a hedge fund that will invest in other racehorses.

Fidelity Axes N.H. Workers

A Strategic Insight report released last week points out that traditional point-of-sale commissions for mutual fund sales are close to being extinct. Of all the sales in 2007, 60% occurred without any front-end loads.

The $1.6 trillion JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Tuesday it will hire 300 employees over the next five years to expand its fund services operations in Boston, and has started offering its Chase Strategic Portfolio, an advisory program for retail banking customers, through its bank branch network.

Market turbulence has been driving many investors to blindly rush to gold, but Franklin Allen and Jeremy Sigel, both Wharton professors at the University of Pennsylvania, have been speaking out about the risks of investing in gold, or even worse, investing based on sentiment. Wide price fluctuations don't make gold a good buy-and-hold for the long term, Allen said.

Ezra Zask Leaves Company He Founded for LECG Role

Big changes are brewing in the 403(b) world. For the first time in 40 years, the Internal Revenue Service is mandating new requirements that aim to make the plans more like 401(k)s.

Mutual fund and other financial services firms are making it easier for their investment advisers to address a broader array of clients' trust needs, ranging from estate planning to philanthropic giving.

NEW YORK - Although the summer has only just begun, it was "Back to School" last week here at a State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) seminar for financial advisers, on the finer points of exchange-traded funds.

NEW YORK - As the turbulent economy begins to calm down, investors will likely gravitate toward index-based, middle-of-the-road mutual funds, opening the door for opportunists to sweep up bargains, industry experts say. And the safer, the better.

The Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t think there is a need for hedge funds to include certain derivatives when calculating how they report ownership stakes in companies, according to a June 4 letter.

As Citigroup looks to restore confidence and drive up its profits, rumors are circulating that the financial giant has received the first round of bids for its mutual fund and insurance sales unit, Primerica Financial Services.

Money market mutual funds assets rose by $18.06 billion to $3.520 trillion for the week ending June 5, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Wachovia Corp. says its retail retirement group is drawing assets by having advisers work face to face with customers at every income level to create a retirement plan.