Consumer cyclical stocks, junk bonds, financial stocks and emerging-markets stocks were among the biggest losers last year, but during the first six months of this year, they propelled a handful of mutual funds to the top of the performance charts.
Depending on the outcome of health care reform, investment opportunities could be found in a variety of related sectors, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and even certain insurers.
At least three brokerage firms have decided not to sell leveraged exchange traded funds a month after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. warned brokers that they “typically are unsuitable for retail investors” who hold them longer than a day.
Following the company's release of strong second-quarter earnings, John J. Degnan, chief operating officer of The Chubb Corp., yesterday took a dig at competitors for accepting federal aid.
The Hartford (Conn.) Financial Services Group Inc. said that it has slashed 270 jobs in its investment products division, eliminating positions in its Planco LLC unit.
Old Mutual Capital Inc. of Denver today announced a plan to eliminate about 45 administrative and sales positions over the next eight months as the firm looks to shrink its mutual fund lineup by about half.
Bank holding companies reaped a record $734.5 million in annuity fee income during the first quarter, according to data from Michael White Associates.
Despite the superior performance of fixed-income assets recently, an all-bond asset allocation is unlikely to deliver investors the returns they need in the future, according to analysis released by Ibbotson Associates, the research division of Morningstar Inc. of Chicago.
A top index provider is considering offering its own lineup of exchange traded funds, but just what those funds would look like is a mystery.
Slumping home prices and financial incentives may make homeownership all the more tantalizing for young newlyweds, but advisers warn that renting may be the smarter choice.
Hedge funds came back with a vengeance during the three-month period ending June 30, posting the industry's best performance since the fourth quarter of 1999, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc. in Chicago.
Small-business owners are aware that their employees worry about long term care insurance, but the perceived cost of providing workers with that coverage turns employers off, according to data from John Hancock Financial Services Inc.
FundQuest Inc. of Boston has expanded the offerings on its managed-accounts platform to include select alternative strategies.
Hedge fund managers and corporate boards received low marks with regard to ethical behavior in a recent survey of financial-industry professionals.
Rather than chiefly representing the variable annuities industry, the Washington-based institute will reach out to advisers and their clients through the group's distributor members, acting as a source of information via webcasts, consumer brochures and research.
Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. has agreed to pay $17.3 million to settle charges that it received nearly $31 million in undisclosed compensation for selling its brokerage customers real estate investment trusts between 2000 and 2004, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The market's decline is taking its toll on mutual funds.
The reputation of exchange traded products that give investors access to commodities took a hit this month when one of the largest exchange traded commodities pools — the $3.61 billion U.S. Natural Gas Fund LP (UNG) — was forced to stop issuing new shares.
The Texas Department of Insurance is mulling a regulation that would mandate disclosure for annuity buyers, but advisers are questioning how effective it would prove to be.
Although state and local governments across the country face staggering budget deficits, their struggles are having little effect on municipal-bond prices.
