The price-to-sales ratio for the 30 companies that comprise the Dow is at its lowest point since 1996, making this a great time to get nto the market, said Neil Hennessy, CIO and portfolio manager for Hennessy Mutual Funds.
Despite vehement objections from state regulators, Conseco Inc. yesterday completed its transfer of a group of long term care policies to an independent trust.
Rydex Investments of Rockville, Md., today announced that shares of its exchange traded trust, CurrencyShares Russian Ruble Trust (XRU), will begin trading today. An exchange traded trust is similar to an exchange traded fund.
The seized-up credit markets and economic uncertainty will take a toll on commercial real estate for the next few years, with rents and occupancy falling until at least the first half of 2010, said Bob Bach, chief economist with Grubb & Ellis.
The New York Federal Reserve Bank on Nov. 24 will begin funding five special-purpose vehicles to finance the purchase of certain assets from money market mutual funds through its Money Market Investor Funding Facility program.
Van Kampen Funds Inc. today announced the launch of the Van Kampen Retirement Strategy Funds, a new series of target date funds.
October was another tough month for hedge funds, as the ripple effects of the global credit crunch continued to force managers to unwind portfolio positions.
Under orders from a federal judge, Bear Stearns has paid $27.3 million to the now-defunct National Heritage Life Insurance Co., which lost money invested with Bear on collateralized mortgage-backed obligations and collateralized debt obligations.
Analysts applauded the newly restructured bailout plan for American International Group Inc., citing benefits for the insurer.
The Fed and the Treasury announced a new restructuring plan to help bolster AIG, including a $40 billion purchase of new preferred shares from the ailing insurer.
Carriers may be going through their own tumult, but that hasn't stopped clients from seeking life insurance coverage, according to agents and advisers.
Insurance companies and distributors face major changes for risk management and product development as variable annuities and their guarantees pressure insurers' risk-based capital, industry experts said.
That, of course, is cold comfort to investors in those funds.
As asset managers position themselves for 2009, the steady stream of pink slips that started to flow last month is expected to continue.
Insurance agents are blasting a controversial Securities and Exchange Commission proposal to classify equity index annuities as securities.
Broker-dealers, registered representatives and advisers could be on the hook if they sell products from major carriers whose risk-based capital is crumbling, plaintiff's attorneys say.
Mutual funds and exchange traded funds that make dollar bets continued to turn in great returns last week despite concerns among some industry watchers that an eight-month U.S. dollar rally is winding down.
Plaintiff's attorney Bill Gladden thought he had handled his last investor arbitration case when he retired in February. But a flood of claims arising from the $2 billion blowup of the Regions Morgan Keegan Select bond funds pulled him back into the legal fray.
During this period of extreme stock market volatility and credit market uncertainty, the case for a broadly diversified portfolio that avoids market valleys — and probably won't soar to market peaks, either — might be the recipe for a good night's sleep.
