Annuities are from Principal Financial Group, Symetra Life Insurance and firms affiliated with MetLife Investors.
The U.S. consumer confidence dropped again in March falling to the lowest figure seen since March 2003.
Residential real estate prices fell precipitously in most metro areas, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
AMEX has launched the Bear Stearns Current Yield Fund today, touting it as the the first actively-managed ETF to hit the market.
Fortress recorded a loss in the fourth quarter due to compensation-related expenses related to its IPO last February.
Nouriel Roubini, one of the biggest bears on Wall Street, wasn't surprised by the fire sale at The Bear Stearns Cos Inc. of New York. He said it just reinforces his 12-point gloom-and-doom outlook, which he unleashed on Wall Street in February, and he now thinks that total financial losses in the credit debacle may top the $1 trillion he previously projected.
Even as the financial services industry scurries to provide advisers with better retirement income vehicles, advisers continue to criticize the new products.
After months of insisting that no further delays for smaller public companies would be forthcoming, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said in December that he would recommend still another delay in implementing Section 404(b) for companies with market caps under $75 million ("non-accelerated filers") until fiscal years ending on or after Dec. 15, 2009.
Sales of existing homes increased by 2.9% in February to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.03 million units, following six consecutive monthly declines.
Mutual Service Corp. faces at least one arbitration claim for allegedly failing to supervise a mortgage broker whose practice collapsed last September under the weight of a nearly $30 million fraud.
