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Thursday, July 27, 2006
Emerging Market Debt Funds Rally
Paul Katzeff, of Investor's Business Daily, reports that emerging market debt funds, which sustained heavy losses in the second quarter, are runaway leaders among fixed-income funds since then. In this IBD article via Yahoo Finance, he said, "Those [emerging market debt funds] tracked by Lipper averaged a 2.17% gain in the first three weeks of this quarter. ...Their run-up is being fueled by receding rate-hike fears, global economic growth and local market developments."
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Posted by KenW
Monday, July 24, 2006
Mutual Fund Trends
Mutual fund writer, Russ Wiles, looks at a half-dozen undercurrent trends that may affect fund investors in this azcentral.com article. Key points include: (1) A pause in rate hikes might not help domestic stocks and stock funds all that much. (2) Interest-rate relief could boost foreign stocks and funds. (3) Money-market funds look a lot better these days. (4) Amid low returns, costs continue to drop on mutual funds as investors seek better deals. (5) Investors can look forward to easier ways to research stocks and mutual funds interactively via computers and the Internet. (6) Investors tend to focus on three key factors when researching mutual funds.
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Posted by KenW
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Broker-Sold Funds Underperform Individual-Picked Mutual Funds
Earle Eldridge, of The Examiner, reports on a recent study, "Assessing the Cost and Benefit of Brokers in the Mutual Fund Industry" written by professors Daniel Bergstresser and Peter Tufano of Harvard Business School and John M.R. Chambers of the University of Oregon. The study looked at the cost and performance of 4,000 mutual funds and found that people who invested on their own -- sometimes with the help of a financial adviser -- faired better than those investors who allowed a brokerage firm to manage their investment. See the complete article here.
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Posted by KenW
Monday, July 17, 2006
New Leveraged Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)
Linda Stern, of Reuters, says, "If you like roller coasters, you'll love the new exchange traded funds from Profunds, in Bethesda, Maryland." She reports, in this Reuters article at Yahoo Finance that, "The firm's subsidiary, ProShares, has partnered with the American Stock Exchange to offer ETFs -- essentially mutual funds that trade like stocks -- designed to earn double the return of the Standard and Poor's 500 stock index and other popular indexes." Stern added, "They are best used by investors who consider market timing a hobby, and believe they can forecast when the good times are coming."
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Posted by KenW
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Fund Investors Nervous About Oil Prices, Economy
"There's nothing really out there pulling at people's ears to jump into investments," said Lipper senior research analyst Tom Roseen during the company's second-quarter fund review and outlook call in this MarketWatch article by John Spence via Yahoo Finance. Spence added, "As the dog days of summer approach and trading thins out, Lipper sees choppy sideways movement in markets and predicts the S&P 500 Index will close the year with single-digit positive returns. In particular, higher energy prices, a slowing housing market and global geopolitical concerns are weighting on investors' minds, Roseen noted."
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Posted by KenW
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Mutual Funds Generally Lower in 2nd Quarter, Flat for Year
Christopher Wang of The Associated Press said "U.S. stock mutual funds suffered through a disappointing second quarter as investors' anxiety about rising inflation and interest rates dragged stocks lower on Wall Street and on markets around the globe. Diversified U.S. stock funds averaged a 3.57 percent negative return for the quarter to date through Thursday, according to mutual fund tracker Lipper. The weakness was concentrated in growth funds and small- and mid-cap funds, often perceived as riskier investments when the economy is slowing." See the full Morning Call article for performance details of other mutual fund categories. Looking at the first half, Chet Currier, a Bloomberg News columnist, reports in this article from the Salt Lake Tribune that "Through the end of last week, the average among all 8,000-plus U.S. stock and bond funds tracked by Bloomberg showed a mere 0.7 percent gain since Jan. 1. Stock funds edged up 1.4 percent. Bond funds were about unchanged."
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Posted by KenW
