by
Karen DeMasters
In the first nine months of this year, Fidelity Capital Markets
increased its share of the municipal bond market by more than 50% over
the same period last year.
The SEC may seek sanctions against two former State Street executives accused of misleading investors in a bond fund with securities backed by subprime mortgages.
The U.S. Treasury Department plans to sell $2.2 billion of Citigroup
Inc. securities, under a plan to lock in profits from the bank's 2008
bailout.
(Dow Jones) Closed-end shareholders' dividends could be less if a ratings proposal by Standard & Poor's becomes a reality.
by Maury Fertig
A tiny corner of the U.S. securities market, closed-end funds often are oversold during downturns but actually provide reliable indicators of their true intrinsic value.
Bill Gross's Pacific Investment Management Co. made an $8.1 billion
wager that the U.S. won't suffer a decade of deflation like the one that
crippled Japan starting in the 1990s.
by Dow Jones
(Dow Jones) Moody's Corp. plans to replace its AAA ratings for money-market
mutual funds with a more-detailed grading system, but some in the fund
industry give the idea low marks.
by Dow Jones
(Dow Jones) As speculation mounts that U.S. lawmakers will let Bush-era tax cuts on
dividends lapse, some wealth managers are considering revising clients'
portfolios to minimize the tax hit.
by Alan Lavine
Its new Web site allows advisors to evaluate and buy fixed immediate annuities from a number of insurance companies.
U.S. corporate pension plans are falling behind future payouts to
retirees by the most in a decade amid a slowing economy and the lowest
bond yields on record.
It should be easier for employers to offer annuities in their
retirement plans because Americans are at risk of outliving their
savings, Prudential Financial said at hearing on lifetime income.
More U.S. stocks are paying dividends that exceed bond yields than any
time in at least 15 years as profits rise at the fastest pace in two
decades.
Many advisors are still taking their cues from pensions funds and
endowments, even as losses in the recent financial crisis prompt these
institutions to reshape their strategies.
by Riva D. Atlas
Why a diversified portfolio of municipal bonds may be a safe place to invest despite the harsh words against them.
by Marla Brill
The Forward Select Income Fund looks to high-yield REIT preferred stock for income.
Junk bonds closed out a record-setting August and look poised to
resume their bull run in September.
With the markets showing little direction of late, financial advisors
may find themselves wanting to put more of their clients' money in
cash.
Investors fed up with U.S. stocks' negative returns and paltry rates in today's fixed-income markets
are piling into exchange-traded funds that invest in high-yield
corporate bonds.
Betting against Treasury bonds was supposed to be the no-brainer
strategy for 2010. Instead, shorting government debt has brought steep
losses so far this year.
by James Picerno
Financial innovation is under fire. Failing to beat the market is only one reason.
