Forward Management LLC of San Francisco, adviser to the Accessor Funds, announced today the launch of a mutual fund that gives investors access to “frontier” equity markets which are smaller, less liquid and less developed.
AllianceBernstein LP reported a 73% fourth-quarter-profit decline, while CIT Group Inc. and Fifth Third Bancorp posted fourth-quarter losses stemming from bad loans.
A Luxembourg investment partnership has agreed to purchase two private-equity funds from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy estate.
Shares of AFLAC Inc., a Columbus, Ga.-based health insurer, plunged after a research note from Morgan Stanley aired concerns about the company’s capital levels.
The default rate for issuers of U.S. corporate junk bonds — bonds that Standard & Poor’s rates BB+ and below — is expected to “catapult” to an all-time high of 13.9% by December, S&P said in a report today.
Fund managers are becoming increasingly optimistic about improving economic growth and the prospects of inflation, but they remain cautious over U.S. equities and emerging Chinese markets, according to Merrill Lynch’s January global fund managers survey.
The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. reported an 88% drop in fourth quarter net income late Tuesday, stemming in large part from $1.24 billion in securities write-downs.
The New-York based investment firm blamed the drop, in large part, to incurring $215 million in losses from investments in hedge funds and real estate products.
Hedge funds experienced record net redemptions of $155 billion in 2008, which when combined with a performance decline of 18.3% for the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index for the year, dropped total industry assets 25% to $1.4 trillion as of Dec. 31.
State Street Corp. today reported a 71% profit drop in fourth-quarter earnings, along with increased unrealized losses in its commercial paper program and investment portfolio.
