The housing market continued its downward spiral in December, with new-home construction plummeting to a record low, according to data released today by the Department of Commerce.
The Denver-based company’s earnings fell to $7.8 million, or 5 cents a share, from $51.6 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier.
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.
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.
GE Asset Management Inc. of Stamford, Conn., today agreed to add the GE Investments Total Return Fund to Pacific Life Insurance Co.’s variable annuity platform.
A Luxembourg investment partnership has agreed to purchase two private-equity funds from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy estate.
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.
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.
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.
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.
