While market watchers are delighted that the S&P 500 has climbed 62% from its March 9 low — and is up more than 20% for the year — many find the gains difficult to understand or explain.
Despite the 60% stock market rally since the March low, many consumers remain fixated on the immediate reality of unemployment, and that is preventing a lot of investors from participating in the rally, according to Kevin Mahn, chief investment officer with Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.
The illogical nature of investor psychology could fuel the next stage of the stock market rally, potentially pushing prices beyond fair-value range, according to Patrick Galley, manager of the RiverNorth Core Opportunity Fund (RNCOX).
Invesco Ltd. is likely to keep intact most of the Morgan Stanley/ Van Kampen operations, which it said last week that it would acquire for $1.5 billion — although some changes are expected in the $119 billion retail money management business it's buying.
Insiders say that the Senate Special Committee on Aging hearings Wednesday will focus on the potential for conflict of interest within proprietary target date funds.
J.P. Morgan Funds is rolling out an online version of its target date evaluation program for financial advisers.
Fixed-income securities — traditional tools to dampen portfolio volatility — are now behind investment strategies intended to guarantee retirement in-come and cash flow.
The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has introduced a variable annuity that allows clients to allocate dollars into a built-in income component.
Members of the insurance industry are applauding an amendment to the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009 that eliminates a section that would have given the agency oversight of some insurance products.
Busting billionaire hedge fund manager <a href=http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20091016/FREE/910169991&ht=galleon> Raj Rajaratnam last week </a> is a sign that the Securities and Exchange Commission is paying much closer attention to insider-trading rings , according to a former SEC enforcer-turned whistleblower.
A judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Vice President Joe Biden's youngest son and brother over their 2006 purchase of a hedge fund firm, saying an investor failed to be specific enough in claiming that they underhandedly shoehorned him out of the deal.
Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay a $90,000 fine to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. to settle charges that it traded municipal bonds at unfair prices.
PIMCO is planning to build active equity management capability, possibly by lifting an existing team from a rival firm, according to sources familiar with the company.
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn offered a $6 billion lifeline to struggling lender CIT Group Inc., one of America's largest lenders to small and mid-sized companies.
So much for having some skin in the game. While investors typically like to see that mutual fund managers are eating a bit of their own cooking and investing in the funds they run, it turns out that the majority of fund managers actually do not have a single dollar of their personal assets in their funds.
Members of Congress took to task John Hancock Life and Health Insurance Co. and the federal Office of Personnel Management in a hearing last week, blasting them for an unexpected rate hike in long-term-care insurance that would hit federal employees.
Mutual fund fees have no effect on shareholder returns, according to research from D. Bruce Johnsen, a professor at George Mason University School of Law.
A federal jury in Minnesota ruled last week that Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America used deceptive materials to market its two-tiered equity-indexed annuities, but declined to assess damages against the company, saying that the plaintiffs suffered no harm.
Hollywood and the insurance industry continue to trade blows as celebrities attack companies' business practices.
Cash flowing into mutual funds — particularly bond funds — at a record pace is a welcome turn of events for the fund industry, but it could end up hurting fund companies to the extent that flows are the result of investors' chasing returns.
